“I was just a tenth behind the Red Bull” – Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton will start the Dutch Grand Prix from fourth place, after the British driver only got one-shot to post a lap-time in final part of Qualifying at Zandvoort.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team have looked drastically better than they did last weekend in Belgium, with pole position having been a real possibility for the seven-time World Champion, had it not been for Sergio Pérez.

Hamilton was on for a potential pole position at the end of Qualifying Three, with the Brit finding himself just a tenth of a second behind Max Verstappen after the second sector. The lap was certainly going to be good enough for a top three start even if he couldn’t better his final sector. However, Hamilton didn’t even get the chance to finish the lap, after Pérez ahead span at the final corner.

The Mexican’s spin brought out the yellow flags, which meant nobody behind the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver could improve on their initial lap-times. This cost Hamilton a top three start for Sunday’s race, one that the Brit is very much in contention for.

Fourth isn’t the end of the world for Hamilton; however, he did admit that at the time of having to slow down, he was “definitely up” on his best lap.

“That final lap was a good one, coming into the final sector I was definitely up and I saw the car facing the opposite direction and had to lift, that lap could have been good enough for at least third but I’ll see if I can replace that tomorrow. I’m happy our car is much, much better this weekend, that’s exciting. Throughout qualifying I was just a tenth behind the Red Bull which gave me a lot of belief that we could just maybe make the difference but it wasn’t meant to be.

“I’m really happy with where I’ve got the setup and balance of the car, I hope degradation comes into play tomorrow and we can have the upper hand. The aero characteristics of the car work much better here, last week we had to run our car higher and that small window where our car likes to operate in is much easier to find here.”

“Sixth isn’t a terrible place to start” – George Russell

George Russell was another victim of Pérez’ spin, with the former Williams Racing driver having also been forced to come out of his final lap. Russell’s lap wasn’t looking as good as his team-mate’s; however, it still would’ve been close to elevating him into the top five.

Russell doesn’t think sixth is a “terrible place”, as the final DRS sector being moved to the start of the banking has really increased the probability of overtaking being possible on Sunday.

With this in mind, Russell has his eyes set on a podium finish, something which there will be a six-way fight for in front of the “orange fog”.

“I think on a circuit like this, there is so much track evolution and when we are already on the back foot, we felt like we need to give it everything and that was our strategy in Budapest as well. The track kept evolving and if you are the last one to cross the line, you are going to hopefully get the best of the track so it goes both ways, you can look like hero or zero.

“And obviously today it didn’t quite work for us but P6 isn’t a terrible place to start and the run into Turn 1 and those first few laps will be vital. But I see no reason why we can’t fight for a podium. I hope the sun comes out and combined with the orange fog, creates a bit of temperature in the atmosphere tomorrow. We understand why we were slow in Spa and why we are faster this weekend, so I think these two races have been key to our understanding of how to make a faster car across 23 races.”