Lewis Hamilton would have “easily” finished in top five without poor qualifying

Lewis Hamilton reckons he had the pace to “easily” finish inside the top five in the F1 Dutch Grand Prix had he qualified higher.

The seven-time world champion suffered a shock Q2 elimination at Zandvoort after only setting the 12th-fastest time in qualifying. To make matters worse, he received a three-place grid drop for impeding Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in Q1.

But Hamilton impressively battled back to eighth place in what he described as being a “fun” recovery drive, where, at times, he was the fastest driver on track.

“If I just qualified like I should’ve qualified and if I didn’t have a problem in qualifying, then yeah [I would have finished higher],” he told media at Zandvoort, where Crash.net are in the paddock.

“I think I had the pace today to easily, definitely [finish] in the top 5. If I started fourth for example then I would’ve finished at least fourth.”

Hamilton was one of three drivers who started on the soft tyre, which he took full advantage of to make up early ground. He then switched onto hards, before utilising a free pit stop to take another set of softs.

The 39-year-old Briton was catching teammate George Russell in the closing stages but ultimately had to settle with eighth.

“We planned to do a two stop and started on the soft, it was a very good tyre,” Hamilton explained. “The soft tyre felt better than the medium tyre on practice day.

“The hard tyre was fairly decent, it was really difficult to see what I needed to do whether to push – I was on a two – so trying to use up the tyre but wasn’t sure whether or not we might go for a one.

“I had a bit of a lock up which meant I had to stay on my strategy. Probably if I’d have done one stop I might have managed it a bit better, maybe finish one place ahead.”