Lewis Hamilton Explains the Domino Effect That Took His Dutch GP Qualifying From Bad to Worse

Lewis Hamilton was knocked out of Q2 during qualifying for the 2024 Dutch GP. The #44 driver will start from P15 [due to a three-place grid penalty for impeding Sergio Perez] for Sunday’s race. Talking the media through a “shocking” session, the Briton explained how his bid for pole position at Circuit Zandvoort unraveled.

Sky Sports F1 quoted the Mercedes driver as saying, “It was a pretty shocking session. These things happen and it’s done now but it doesn’t feel good. It all went badly from the moment with [Sergio] Perez happened. I did my best to get out of the way, I was far to the left as possible, but timing was bad. It was a domino effect, it went from bad to worse.” 

Hamilton was referring to his incident with the #11 driver during Q1. Perez was on a fast lap when he encountered the #44 driver’s car at turn 9. Hamilton did try to leave space for the Mexican driver but the latter was left furious as he felt he was impeded by the Briton.

Perez then had to use up a fresh set of soft tires to make it out of Q1 — leaving him with only one set during Q3.

Meanwhile, Hamilton’s final flying effort during Q2 was not good enough for him to progress into the top 10 shootout. Mercedes also experienced a lack of consistency on the W15 between sessions, as far as Hamilton was concerned.

W15 went from bad to worse for Hamilton between Q1 and Q2 during Dutch GP qualifying

Hamilton showed considerable pace during the very first session — even putting in the fastest lap of the session at one point of time. However, as he explained, the balance of the car got worse between Q1 and Q2.

The 39-year-old was quoted on X (formerly Twitter) as saying, “Today was frustrating. We had been looking good throughout the weekend and in Q1, I was pleased with the balance of the car. Unfortunately, we struggled more in Q2, and it slipped through our fingers.”

Team principal, Toto Wolff also concurred with the Briton’s analysis. The Austrian conceded that there was a lack of correlation compared to the car’s balance from Friday. He explained that the W15 was almost on a knife’s edge with both the drivers having difficulty in extracting the maximum from the package.