Hamilton: I had to pay for the wrong decisions

The Mercedes team admits they did not act in the best way during the Dutch Grand Prix, although they were able to compete for high positions with the car. But Lewis Hamilton finished sixth and George Russell 17th overall due to a puncture after the final restart.

Lewis Hamilton (6e): “I’m in a pretty good mood. Of course I didn’t know how it would turn out today, but last night I thought about what we did wrong and how we ended up in such a distant starting position. But then I tried to figure out how to proceed to move forward, and it turned out that I was the only one starting on Medium tyres.

Of course I wanted to choose a different tactic than the one the riders starting around me would prefer, but not all Grand Prix competitors in general. And when it started to rain, we made the wrong decision; in the end, it was the team’s decision. And they had to pay for it.

We were the last to return to the track and then we continued to grit our teeth. It was a very good example of how to act when you fail or make a mistake: you have to keep fighting and trying to win back.

Every time I had to pit, I returned to the track, lost ground, but kept attacking. For example, I was very happy when I overtook a McLaren car, although it is very difficult to overtake on this track. And at the end of the distance I was faster than Carlos Sainz, but I just didn’t have the opportunity to use the DRS system.

If we made the right decisions, it seems to me that the speed of the car would allow us to fight for second place.”

George Russell (17th): “After the restart at the end of the lap, I overtook Lando Norris’s McLaren before the chicane and there was contact between our cars. It is of course a pity that everything ended in a puncture, because I could earn some points.

Today we had a very fast car, but we made the wrong decisions and the weather was against us. Now we have to analyze everything and understand what could have been better, because today we definitely missed a big opportunity.

We expected it to rain for a minute or two, and it rained for ten minutes. I thought I would last another lap or two once the rain cleared up quickly, but it kept going. But it’s better to have a fast car even on a bad day than the other way around.”

Toto Wolff, team leader: “Tough day. In the first fifteen laps we literally made every mistake that could be made. Because of this, the chance to fight for the podium was missed.

For the next 50 laps and until the end of the red flag race, everything went as usual: the car was fast on tires of any compound, we made the right decisions and the drivers recovered well, running up to 6th and 8th place.

In the closing laps George was unlucky, contact with another car saw him roll back to the end of the pack, while Lewis did everything he could to overtake Carlos Sainz, but there was no way to get ahead. it.

The race was fun, but today we had to fight for positions in the front. However, in our sport, there are no ‘if’, ‘but’ and ‘maybe’. Now it is important to rebuild, understand why our team made so many mistakes today, and try again next weekend in Monza to succeed.”