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By Saajan Jogia
Sports Contributing Writer
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Ferrari Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton has opened up about his crash at the Dutch Grand Prix, marking his first DNF with Ferrari. The seven-time world champion started the race weekend praising the progress made by his team on the SF-25 F1, but met with an unlucky race ending.
Hamilton was chasing his former teammate, George Russell, at Zandvoort when he oversteered on Lap 23 at Turn 3, at the same time that it had begun to rain lightly. The 40-year-old driver ran wide on the banked turn, reaching the point where the banking levels out.
Hamilton attempted to correct the oversteer but crashed into the barrier, severely damaging the front right section of his SF-25. The incident triggered the first of many safety cars. Speaking on the incident that ended his race, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1:
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"I'm really not sure. I will have to look back at it. As I went up the bank, the rear snapped out and I couldn't recover."
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However, unlike many previous race weekends where Hamilton was unhappy about the setup on his SF-25, he remarked that Ferrari had made progress with its challenger at Zandvoort. He added:
"It was a bit twitchy, the car. I think we made real progress this weekend. My pace was looking pretty decent. I was catching George [Russell] and I think I had the pace of a few cars ahead of me.
"Very unusual to not finish a race and to go out so early, it's definitely not great, but it is what it is."
Hamilton spoke about the improvement at Ferrari after the qualifying session where he secured a P7 race start, a stark contrast to his P12 start in the previous round in Hungary. He said:
"I think this weekend, definitely, we've seen progress, and that was the goal. A better approach, and overall, just everything has been more enjoyable, so I've definitely enjoyed it. I think I got the most out of the car in pretty much every session.
"I think in that last lap, when I came out of Turn 1, I was already a tenth and a half down. I need to look into why, I can't remember exactly. But then you're on the back foot from then on.
"I think today, probably close to P5 would have been possible. With the wind and everything, it's quite tricky for all of us."
Unfortunately for Ferrari, Charles Leclerc suffered the second DNF after Mercedes' Andrea Kimi Antonelli made contact with him, causing his SF-25 to spin violently before crashing into the barrier.
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