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Lewis Hamilton reckons he had the pace to challenge race winner Max Verstappen in front of his home crowd at Zandvoort in the Dutch GP. The Mercedes driver was confident that he could have put his W14 in the top two if the team had made the right strategy calls early in the race.
Starting 13th on the grid, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes squandered the opportunity to put themselves in the front when rain hit the track on lap 1. The team decided to leave both drivers on slicks only to call Hamilton on Lap 3 and George Russell the following lap.
Both drivers tumbled down the order, with the seven-time world champion being last on the grid at one moment in time. Following his stint on the intermediates, Hamilton was quick in the dry conditions. This prompted him to suggest that he could have challenged the crowd favorite Max Verstappen.
"Today I had the pace, in those conditions if we made the right calls, I could have challenged the top two. We would have challenged Max, particularly when we got to the dry pace-wise we weren't terribly far off," he told Sky Sports F1.
"I'm not saying we would have beat them, but I think we would have been happy. It's still nice if you think that way," he added.
Lewis Hamilton was stuck in traffic for the majority of his stint with Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda proving to be a bottleneck. However, he was one of the quickest drivers when he was on his second set of softs as he cleared Norris with ease.
"We came out last and after that we kept chasing, head down. It was a really good example of when you fall or stumble, to get back up and keep trying. Every time I had to pit, I came out behind and kept chasing," Hamilton said.
"I was really happy when I got past the McLaren for example, which isn't easy to do on this track. I was quicker than Sainz at the end. I just needed DRS," he added.
Considering the poor strategy choice, Hamilton had a stellar recovery drive and also set third fastest lap time on his way to sixth place finish.
Lewis Hamilton trusts Toto Wolff amidst contract negotiation saga
Prior to the Dutch GP, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff updated the status of Lewis Hamilton's contract. He indicated that they are currently talking about marketing schedules and other smaller details before reaching an agreement.
Lewis Hamilton also suggested that there were no tensions between him and Wolff despite the delay in striking a deal.
“Toto is a great boss and Mercedes have supported me for such a long time,” the Briton said to Sky Italia.
“I don’t feel that there is any tension between us. We trust each other. We have the same goals and we know that we can achieve them together.” he concluded.
Hamilton's current contract expires at the end of this year.
