Lewis Hamilton on way to overcome his F1 ‘nightmare’ with Q3 return

Hamilton admittedly struggled to a “nightmarish” point before the summer break, but Q3 at Zandvoort is lifting his spirits

Lewis Hamilton may have been outqualified by Ferrari Formula 1 team-mate Charles Leclerc for a fourth consecutive time at the Dutch Grand Prix, but he still had reasons to smile.

Unlike both Spa-Francorchamps sessions – where he was out in Q1 – and his Hungarian Q2 exit, Hamilton made it to the last segment of qualifying for the first time since the British GP. The Englishman outpaced Leclerc by a whisker in Q1 and Q2 before recording a 0.050s deficit in Q3.

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Hamilton will now start the Zandvoort race in seventh, right behind his team-mate in sixth, hoping to confirm a revival of sorts with a drive to a strong result. More trivially, his finishing record at the Dutch circuit as so far gone second, fourth, sixth and eighth, but he is in a position to halt that trend.

“It's definitely important to have a solid weekend in general,” the seven-time world champion said after qualifying. “The last couple have been nightmarish. Get to bed early tonight and come back strong tomorrow, hopefully have a solid day.

“It definitely feels like it's been one of the most solid couple of days, so far, of the year. As I said, that's to do with some of the improvements in the process, my approach, and it's just a little bit calmer overall.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images via Getty Images

“The team did a great job to qualify, we just need more performance at this track from somewhere. Tomorrow, maybe the race pace will be a bit better. I hope we can apply some pressure.”

Having struggled to match Leclerc since the beginning of the season, Hamilton explained that he performed worse when attempting to emulate the Monegasque’s set-up philosophy.

“He went a different way this morning [in FP3]; I just stayed steady and stayed with where I was,” Hamilton recounted. “I think it was the right decision for me. I've tried where he went many times through the year and it's never been positive for me.

“I'm definitely learning how to extract the best from this car. I'm the type that's always searching for more, like everywhere. It's a little bit in the tyre pressure, a little bit in the blanket temperatures, a little bit in ride height, front, rear.

“I'm looking at everything, and I think what's clear is the difference from where I was before. I think here you can't be looking for those, you have to stay put most often. That's also the case with this generation of cars.”

As far as Dutch GP strategy is concerned – with a one-stopper the go-to tactic but a two-stopper possible, and potential rain spicing up the race – Hamilton said: “I think it would be smart to split strategies given that we're trying to beat McLaren.

“It's definitely good when you have the two drivers next to each other. Apart from McLaren, we are the next team that has two drivers next to each other, so hopefully that can play a role in how we overcut, undercut the cars up ahead of us, potentially.”