Damon Hill delivers verdict on Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying display at the Dutch Grand Prix

Follow us on Google Discover

Lewis Hamilton will have his work cut out when he lines up on the grid for Sunday’s race at Zandvoort.

The Dutch Grand Prix is home to the narrowest non-street circuit on the calendar and one of the shortest laps, making overtaking tricky.

Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton needed to have a strong qualifying session to give himself the best chance of adding a third victory to his tally this season.

However, things failed to go to plan for the 39-year-old as he suffered a shock elimination in Q2.

A scruffy final run in the session saw him cross the line in 12^th and things got even worse from there.

Hamilton was one of two drivers to see his starting position impacted by decisions from the stewards.

Alex Albon will start from the back of the grid – or potentially the pit lane – after being disqualified due to an issue with his floor after a storming display initially saw him qualify in 8^th.

Mercedes’s lead driver was then adjudged to have impeded Sergio Perez during one of his flying laps and picked up a three-place grid penalty to add insult to injury.

Damon Hill reacted on Instagram to the news of Hamilton’s penalty that will see him line up in 14^th for Sunday’s race.

With the weather forecast improving following difficult conditions on Friday and Saturday, the jeopardy of changeable conditions doesn’t even look like they’re going to benefit Hamilton this time around.

READ MORE: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

Damon Hill reacts to Lewis Hamilton’s penalty at the Dutch Grand Prix

The stewards after making their decision concluded that ‘whilst there has been appropriate warning by the team and albeit the driver tried to move out of the way, he could have slowed down more in order not to impede the other car and therefore consider the impeding to be unnecessary in the sense of the regulations.’

It meant that the traditional three-place penalty was applied to Hamilton’s starting position and leaves him lining up alongside Kevin Magnussen on the seventh row of the grid.

Reflecting on his overall performance on Saturday, Hill simply said: “Tough day for the GOAT.”

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Mercedes AMG F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Sergio Perez had sympathy for Lewis Hamilton after Zandvoort penalty

While Sergio Perez was very frustrated over the team radio when the incident occurred, he understood that Hamilton wasn’t trying to get in his way during his lap.

Perez goes into the race weekend under significant pressure and managed to secure a 5^th-place start in the final session of the day.

Asked about the incident, Perez said: “That [incident] was unfortunate, I think it was just wrong time, wrong moment.

“Lewis was on the racing line. There was nothing I could do. Other than fitting a new set [of softs for another run in Q1], which was very costly then in Q3.”

Perez then admitted that Hamilton did ‘the best he could’ in the circumstances but unless he had driven off the track completely, he was always going to be in the Mexican’s way.

Hamilton started last year’s race in 13^th but managed to recover to 6^th to secure eight points for the team.

However, that race was full of incidents and he may need a similar scenario to play out on Sunday to continue his fine run of form.