Lewis Hamilton reacts to his race-ending crash during the F1 Dutch GP

Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he was caught by surprise when he slid into the wall during the F1 Dutch GP. The Ferrari driver suffered from his first race-ending crash in Zandvoort, as the slippery track surface meant that the driver lost control for a moment and ended up out of the race.

Lewis Hamilton came into the F1 Dutch GP under pressure after the kind of race weekend he'd had in Hungary. Before the summer break, the driver had pleaded to Ferrari to change the lineup, as he had another disastrous result. At Zandvoort, the driver seemed more comfortable with the car.

He was more or less on par with Charles Leclerc throughout the weekend and was outqualified by mere hundredths. Even on Sunday, the driver was having a decent race behind George Russell. However, during the first stint, a spell of light rain meant that the track was slightly slippery, and the driver was caught out.

Talking to the media, including Motorsport, afterwards, the driver said that he was caught off-guard and hence ended up damaging his Ferrari in the barriers. He said,

"It took me by complete surprise what happened, I lost the rear up the bank, and that was it. Apart from that, it's been a really solid weekend. I feel like I made progress, just overall, and my approach and everything."

He added,

"To come away with nothing is definitely painful. I feel fine mentally, I’ve felt lots of positives. I felt I was making progress, I was catching the car ahead. It’s tough to have a result like that for sure. But I’ve been racing for so long, I’ve had God knows how many races. You can probably count on one hand that sort of incident.”

Jacques Villeneuve defends Lewis Hamilton

Jacques Villeneuve defended Lewis Hamilton after his crash, as the Canadian felt that it was just a case of the driver encountering a lack of grip due to a slippery surface. Talking about the crash of the Ferrari driver, the former F1 champion told Sky Sports,

"Drizzles - you just never know when it will be that drop too much. And we've all been caught like this. You drive in the dry, you drive as you would normally drive in the dry, and suddenly you slide."

He added,

"And the way he slid you could tell it was just a sudden lack of grip, a little bit of wet on the paint, and he really got caught out and not by much because he just glanced the tyre barrier and that was it."

In a race where nothing went Ferrari's way, Lewis Hamilton's crash triggered a safety car that compromised his teammate Charles Leclerc's race. In the end, even Leclerc would suffer a DNF as the errant Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli clattered into him.