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Laurence Edmondson
Zandvoort, Netherlands – Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc crashed out of the Dutch Grand Prix in separate incidents during Sunday’s race.
The seven-time champion crashed out of seventh place on Lap 23 of 72 as light rain started to fall around the circuit.
He had just radioed Ferrari to encourage the team to pit him when he appeared to take too much speed into the banked Turn 3, lost the rear of his Ferrari on the painted advertising lining the corner, and crashed into the barrier.
Leclerc crashed into the barriers on Lap 53 after a collision with Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Leclerc was OK and sat on the sand dunes for the next 10 laps after his car was recovered, but the Mercedes driver was handed a 10-second penalty for the incident.
Meanwhile, Hamilton told reporters the crash took him by surprise.
“[It] took me by complete surprise what happened now, I lost the rear up the bank, and that was it,” he said. “Apart from that, it’s been a really solid weekend. I feel like I made progress, just overall, and my approach and everything. To come away with nothing is definitely painful.”
Hamilton added: “I’m sad for the team, as I said, because I really wanted to get those points for the team today, and I honestly felt like I had the pace in the cars ahead of me. I was hoping to see real progress in the race.
“No no, I’m fine, 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.”
Although Hamilton was unharmed, the damage to the front of his car meant he was unable to continue in the race and he retired on the spot.
It was Hamilton’s first retirement from a race as a Ferrari driver and his first failure to finish a grand prix since Austin last year when he was still a Mercedes driver.
He has struggled for performance since his arrival at Ferrari at the start of the season, but was happier with his Qualifying in Zandvoort than he had been ahead of the break at the Hungarian Grand Prix when he labelled himself “useless.”
Ahead of this weekend’s race in the Netherlands, Hamilton said he hoped to rediscover his love of F1 in the second half of the year after admitting the pressure since joining Ferrari had sapped his enjoyment of the sport.
Next week Formula 1 heads to Monza, a crucial race for Ferrari and the Fans.
When asked about next week’s race, Hamilton said: “There’s obviously a huge amount of pressure on us as a team, more so for me now. I haven’t had a good season. Next week, we’ll just try to absorb all the energy from the fans.”
