Hamilton spots room for Mercedes improvement

Lewis Hamilton has identified Zandvoort's first sector as where Mercedes must improve despite a strong showing during Dutch Grand Prix practice.

The British driver finished third and fourth on the first day of F1's comeback from the summer break as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris topped the two sessions respectively.

Hamilton ended both sessions roughly three-tenths slower than the pace-setter but was pleased with the balance from the W14 around the twisty Zandvoort track.

But insisting there was room for growth, Hamilton explained: "We can find a little bit [of pace] everywhere.

"McLaren was much quicker in the first sector than us, and in the long run, the tyre was overheating, which I think everyone has had, and it is trying to make sure you extract the most out of them and in the right window to start your lap.

"We've been slow in the first sector, but good in the last sector, so we just need to try to find the right balance.

"Hopefully, we are right with [McLaren and Red Bull].

"The Red Bull is a little bit quick as always, so I don't necessarily anticipate we will be able to beat them, but it will be close.

"We want to get up as high as possible because it is not so easy to overtake here, so we will be gunning for as high a qualifying spot as possible.

"It'd be great to be able to be in the top three, and it just depends on the job we do [analysing the data]."