Lewis Hamilton voices confusion after sprint qualifying letdown

Lewis Hamilton has voiced confusion over his lack of pace during sprint qualifying at the Dutch Grand Prix.

The seven-time champion ended FP1 on Friday in fourth place and ahead of Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.

However, when it came to the shootout, Hamilton slipped behind Leclerc and could only secure seventh on the road, well over half a second down on the fastest lap set by George Russell.

Hamilton outlined that he made minor changes to the car after the sole practice outing, which had a major impact on its handling.

“Not a good session, unfortunately, that's just the way it is,” Hamilton said.

“FP1 felt good. We made subtle adjustments to the car, but when we got into qualifying, it was a completely different car. 

“We need to figure out what went wrong, and we'll do our best tomorrow.”

Hamilton will be hoping to consolidate a strong point-scoring finish on Saturday as he looks to keep up his title challenge against Mercedes. 

However, as per the parc fermé regulations, he will not be able to make significant changes until after the sprint race is finished.

When asked if he knows where he can find improvements for qualifying and the grand prix, Hamilton said: “Yes, I think so. We'll look at the data and then we'll make a determination.

“But we just got to go through the data and figure it out. 

“Charles was in a slightly different place to me, a bit closer to where I was [in FP1].”