“It was the team’s call”; Hamilton claims “wrong decision” cost him possible win

The race at Zandvoort was chaotic early on as rain fell heavily on the opening lap.

This led to contrasting decisions up and down the grid to either pit for intermediates or stay out on dry tyres.

Mercedes decided to keep both of their drivers out on the slicks, waiting until Lap 3 to stop.

It was the wrong call as Sergio Perez, who stopped at the end of Lap 1, was running 10 seconds clear at the front of the field. 

Hamilton ultimately recovered from outside the top 10 to finish sixth.

Reflecting on his Sunday, Hamilton said: "I feel really good. I didn’t really know how today would go, I sat last night racking my brain: ‘Where did we go wrong? How did we end up in this position?’ I was then working on how to progress this morning. I was the only one of the medium tyre. I wanted to be off-set to the people around me, not everyone on the grid.

"When the rain came, we as a team made the wrong decision. It was the team’s call. We paid the price for that. We came out last, we were just chasing, I kept my head down.

"It was a good example that when you call or stumble, just keep trying. Every time I had to pit, I came out and kept chasing and chasing. I was really happy - I got past the McLaren, for example, which on this track is not so easy to do. I was quicker than Sainz at the end, I just needed to hit DRS.

"Today I had the pace, in the conditions and if we made the right call, to be challenging the top two. I think we would have been challenging Max, if I’m honest. Particularly when we got to the dry. Pace-wise, we weren’t terribly far off. Not saying we’d have beaten them."

Hamilton remains fourth in the F1 drivers' championship, losing ground to Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso after he finished second.