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Lewis Hamilton has said his weekend is “done” after a disappointing Q2 exit in Zandvoort.
After a flurry of promising results before the summer break, the Mercedes driver will start tomorrow’s Dutch Grand Prix from a disappointing P14.
Crashing out
Following a nightmare start to 2024, Mercedes managed to turn their season around before the summer break. After eight race weekends, neither of the team’s drivers had stood on the podium and the German outfit sat fourth in the World Constructors’ Championship Standings on only 96 points. However, in the following six race weekends, they were arguably the strongest team on the grid and picked up an impressive 170 points. In this period, the team picked up three grand prix victories, two of which were claimed by Hamilton.
The seven-time world champion stood on the top step of the podium for the first time since 2021 at the British Grand Prix in July before also claiming victory two weeks later in Spa-Francorchamps. Alongside Max Verstappen, the 39-year-old is the only driver to have won multiple races in 2024. Coming into the second half of the season, many fans expected much of the same from the seven-time world champion who was back to his best for the first time since in almost three years.
Iconic.#BritishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/dRZzgrNBTO
— Silverstone (@SilverstoneUK) July 7, 2024
After Friday’s practice sessions, it looked as though the British driver was once again going to be competitive this weekend. However, he failed to deliver in Saturday’s qualifying session. Despite a convincing Q1 performance, Hamilton failed to fabricate a sufficient lap time at the second stage and suffered a premature end to his session as a result.
The Mercedes driver was initially set to start today’s race from P12, however matters got worse when he was summoned to the steward’s office after the session. As a result of an impeding incident with Perez in Q1, Hamilton received a three-place grid penalty, piling further misery on a disappointing day. Following Alex Albon’s disqualification from yesterday’s session, the 39-year-old will now start from P14 this afternoon.
UPDATE: Lewis has received a three place grid penalty having been adjudged to have unnecessarily impeded Sergio Perez during Qualifying. pic.twitter.com/y1ZqBmF7eg
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) August 24, 2024
Looking to Monza?
Hamilton is more than capable of producing a positive result in this afternoon’s race. Despite failing to reach Q3 on two previous occasions this year, the seven-time world champion is yet to finish outside the point-scoring positions in any race he has finished. However, after a substandard Saturday, Hamilton is pessimistic about his chances come lights out. Speaking to Formula 1 media after yesterday’s qualifying session, Hamilton said:
“It’s definitely very, very frustrating, naturally, but it is what it is. It’s kind of the weekend done and I’ll have to move on to next week [at Monza].”
The Mercedes driver then went on to explain what he thought went wrong:
“I think the rain definitely made it tricky in the morning [in FP3], not to see where the car balance was.
“I think ultimately, if everyone had had a dry P3, we probably would have done a bit of a better job with the set-up, maybe, for qualifying, but still, I think just [the] performance wasn’t there from my side.”
Hamilton currently sits sixth in the World Drivers’ Championship Standings on 150 points.
Feature Image Credit: (Photo by Andrea Diodato/NurPhoto via Getty Images)