Lewis Hamilton names 'biggest culprit' after requiring Ferrari 'rebuild'

Lewis Hamilton believes struggles with the tyres were the "biggest culprit" in explaining Ferrari's deficit to rivals in Dutch Grand Prix qualifying, as he detailed the "rebuilding" he was required to do after a set-up misstep.

Hamilton will line up fifth at Zandvoort, and was 0.381s behind pole-sitter Lando Norris, with the McLaren and Mercedes machines proving the quickest across the weekend thus far - although team-mate Charles Leclerc was second in the Sprint.

Hamilton opted to go back to a different set-up for qualifying after believing that his Sprint qualifying and race direction had been the wrong one, and which set him back, with this only being allowed to be done during the reopening of parc ferme before grand prix qualifying.

Detailing how he was required to start again with his learning, the seven-time champion also explained how the tyres were the "biggest culprit" in explaining the gap to the four cars ahead, as he struggled to bring them into the operating window, suffering two big lock-ups into Turn 1 throughout the session.

"I was much happier with the car in qualifying, thankfully, but it is not helpful when it comes to building confidence," Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365.

"It's like you're putting brick by brick by brick, putting it down and building a wall which is knocked down and you lose that confidence that I had in P1. I didn't have it in Sprint qualifying, and then I was just basically starting again.

"The car was much better, and I'm happy with it and excited [for the race], but I think the tyres were the biggest culprit.

"I was just really struggling to get the tyres to work, and they weren't in the first sector, which is where we lost most of our time, and then they get better through the lap.

"If you just do an out-lap, the tyres are still not ready for Turn 1; it is just nuts, and then you don't have the confidence to attack Turn 1, and that was the biggest difference to the [cars] ahead.

"We couldn't do an out-lap and straight into [a flying lap], the tyres were cold, so I don't know how [the McLarens and Mercedes] were able to. We couldn't, so luckily the rain didn't come, and we got another lap in.

"I was struggling with locking; I didn't have it through the rest of the weekend, and with the set-up, I started locking the front right, but I think it was mostly [due to a lack of] tyre temperature."