Lewis Hamilton makes Zandvoort F1 breakthrough after “starting again” for qualifying

Lewis Hamilton says he is now “excited” for the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix after rebuilding his confidence in his Ferrari during qualifying on Saturday at Zandvoort.

The seven-time F1 world champion was left unhappy with his Ferrari after struggling to seventh on Friday in sprint qualifying.

Those feelings continued into Saturday morning’s 24-lap sprint, as Lewis Hamilton finished a distant seventh as team-mate Charles Leclerc was second.

But Hamilton was more competitive in grand prix qualifying, putting his car fifth on the grid ahead of Leclerc after his final flying lap.

“When it comes to confidence, it’s brick by brick…”

Hamilton says he is “much happier” with his car going into the grand prix, having been forced into “starting again” in rebuilding his confidence.

“I was much, much happier with the car in qualy, thankfully,” he said on Saturday afternoon.

“But it’s not that helpful when you… when it comes to building confidence, it’s like brick by brick, you’re putting down a wall.

“Locked down that confidence I had in FP1. Didn’t have it through sprint qualifying, and then basically it was starting again building.

“The car was much better. I’m much happier with it; I’m excited for tomorrow.”

Hamilton left it late to make an improvement in Q3 as rain began to fall on the Zandvoort track, but admits he was forced into extra preparation laps than he would have liked as the Ferrari couldn’t fire up the tyres as well as its rivals could.

“I mean, I think the tyres were the biggest culprit today,” he explained.

“I was just really struggling to get the tyres to work.

“It was like they were coming in in the first sector; that’s where we lost most of the time.

“And then they get better through the lap. But you do an out-lap and a prep lap and the tyres are still not ready for Turn 1. It’s nuts.

“So, you just don’t have the confidence to attack Turn 1. I think that was the biggest difference today.”

Asked if other cars were just better at warm-up, he added: “I think so. They definitely did yesterday. They did today as well.”