Lewis Hamilton stated he “paid the price” for Mercedes’ technique blunder initially of Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Following a first-lap downpour in Zandvoort, Mercedes have been too gradual to place each Hamilton and team-mate George Russell on the intermediate tyres.
The poorly-timed stops left Hamilton and Russell – who was third on the grid – thirteenth and seventeenth when the order shuffled out.
“We should have pitted, but we didn’t, and we paid the price for that,” stated Hamilton who finally crossed the road sixth as Max Verstappen claimed his ninth win in succession.
“Today I had the pace, and I was on pace with Max, but we were just out of position.
“I was pretty happy with my drive to back into the points. I got sixth. But it could have been higher, for sure.”
Sergio Perez began seventh however assumed the lead of the race after he was referred to as in by his quick-thinking Red Bull staff on the primary lap.
With the rain nonetheless falling, Verstappen, fairly rightly, stopped the following time spherical however Russell stayed out on the slick rubber regardless of the worsening situations.
Hamilton, who began thirteenth, was additionally despatched spherical for an additional lap regardless of the seven-time world champion’s apparent issues.
“We should have come in, man,” stated Hamilton over the radio. “It is very wet.”
“Copy, Lewis,” stated his race engineer Peter Bonnington. “We’re going to stay out. We’re going to have to brave this.”
But on the finish of the third lap, Hamilton was in for moist tyres. He rejoined the observe in final place.
Russell was nonetheless sliding round on slicks earlier than he was modified on to the moist rubber on the finish of lap 4.
“I was forecast a podium,” stated Russell on the radio. “F***, how did we mess this up?”
Russell was labeled seventeenth after he collided with Norris within the closing levels and sustained a left-rear puncture.
“The race was over before it really got started,” stated the 25-year-old Englishman. “The information we got about the weather was totally wrong.
“We thought the rain would last a couple of minutes but it clearly lasted for longer. It was a real shame. A podium was missed.
“As a team we need to review because we are getting the information coming into us and it was misjudging the weather. It is not anything to do with racing or engineering. It was just a weather misinterpretation and that ruined our afternoon.
“So we need to look into that, to see why the others decided to pit and what information they had that we didn’t, and make sure we don’t make the same mistake again.”
Mercedes staff principal Toto Wolff stated: “That was a difficult day for us. In the opening 15 laps, we got pretty much everything wrong that we could have done – and that cost us any chance of fighting for the podium. We will review thoroughly.”
