Lewis Hamilton criticises his Mercedes team’s strategy in Dutch GP

LEWIS HAMILTON has been quick to criticise the Mercedes team’s race strategy in the Dutch GP as Verstappen goes back on top of the driver’s championship

Lewis Hamilton had to settle for second place in this afternoon’s Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, after 23-year-old Dutchman, Max Verstappen powered his Red Bull car to a seventh victory this season out of thirteen races, making him the first-ever Dutch F1 driver to win in their home race.

During the course of the race, the eventual victor lapped every car on the circuit except for the tow Mercedes cars, sending him back to the top of the driver’s championship, three points clear of Britain’s seven-times world champion.

Hamilton was called into the pits first, less than a third of the way through the race, while Verstappen stayed out, which meant that he would then definitely have to make a second pitstop later on, and after the race, he was very critical of his team’s strategy, “I definitely think that wasn’t our best strategy”, he pointed out.

Adding, “We stopped too early… it had just been a point where we got through traffic, I’d lost a good second from him, and I needed to close that gap up before we did a stop. And then I came out behind traffic. I don’t know how they didn’t see that”.

He was quick to give credit to Red Bull though, “They just did a better job all round. They definitely were faster today, there wasn’t really a lot that I could do to answer to the lap times that he was putting in. I think today we probably needed everything to be perfect to have even the slightest chance of getting past him through strategy… they’ve taken a bit of a step ahead”.

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