Lewis Hamilton Slams George Russell After Disappointing Dutch GP - 'I Would've Finished At Least Fourth'

Saajan Jogia | Aug 27, 2024

May 2, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (44) addresses the media in advance of the Miami Grand Prix at the Miami International Autodrome. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports / John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton admitted that he could have finished in the top five at the Dutch Grand Prix, yielding a better result than his teammate George Russell. Hamilton, who opted for the less common soft Pirelli tires, admitted that his W15 had the pace to compete among the fastest cars on the grid at Zandvoort.

Mercedes has shown a remarkable resurgence since the Canadian Grand Prix this season, with Hamilton, Russell, or both, consistently reaching the podium in the following races. Russell claimed victory at the Austrian Grand Prix, while the seven-time world champion triumphed at the British and Belgian Grands Prix.

The Brackley outfit's mid-season form portrayed a potential threat to leading team Red Bull, which continues to face struggles pertaining to its title contender, the RB20 F1 car.

In addition, the McLaren team, which had just started to show results, had another contender to fight hard in the form of Mercedes, a challenge in its efforts to overtake Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship, with the gap now reduced to 30 points.

However, things took a turn for the worse for Mercedes at Zandvoort last weekend, as neither driver came close to a podium finish. Hamilton's struggles began in qualifying, where he was unexpectedly eliminated in Q2. To make matters worse, he received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Sergio Perez in Q1, forcing him to start from fourteenth on the grid.

While the 39-year-old managed to gain positions and finish eighth, one place below Russell, the same can't be said about his teammate, who started fourth but finished the race in seventh place. Hamilton explained that if he had started fourth, he would have at least finished fourth.

He told the media:

"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].

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

Hamilton then explained the two-stop strategy and this decision to go for soft tires, as opposed to the grid's common preference for mediums. He added:

"We planned to do a two-stop and started on the soft, it was a very good tire. The soft tire felt better than the medium tire on practice day. The hard tire 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 tire 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."