Lewis Hamilton says he and Mercedes would have had to be perfect to stand a chance of beating Max Verstappen at Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Hamilton chased Verstappen through much of the 72-lap grand prix at Zandvoort and twice attempted to use the undercut to threaten the Red Bull driver.
But Verstappen remained ahead and maintained a gap over Hamilton throughout to pick up his seventh victory of the season in front of his passionate home supporters.
“I think ultimately congrats to Max, they just did a better job all round, they definitely were faster today,” said Hamilton.
“There wasn’t a lot I could do to answer the lap times he was doing already in stint one already, it was very hard to keep up, and I think Max was just managing whereas I was flat out just trying to stay as close as possible.
“I think today we needed everything to be perfect to have the slightest chance to pass him on strategy.
“Pit stops needed to be on point, start and traffic also, but none of those three were ideal today, but nonetheless as a team we got second and third, some really good points on them on the constructors, that’s a super important one, and we’ll come back next week fighting.”
While Hamilton relinquished the lead of the Drivers’ standings Mercedes stayed ahead of Red Bull in the pecking order courtesy of Valtteri Bottas taking third.
“I think, like Lewis said, Red Bull and Max had the upper hand on the pure pace today,” he said.
“For me, from quite early on, I was committed to one stop, so I knew that meant I couldn’t push the tyres too much, managing mainly in the high-speed corners.
“We tried to play the long game, but it was quite a bit slower today, I would say, to try and do a one-stop”
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