Lewis Hamilton has admitted that Red Bull were simply too fast to catch at the Dutch Grand Prix, saying that Max Verstappen had extra pace in his locker which he could have called upon if the Briton had got close enough to really challenge for the lead.
Verstappen retook top spot in F1’s title race at the weekend as he won in front of his adoring home crowd at Zandvoort, with Hamilton coming home in second place and Valtteri Bottas completing the podium in third.
Indeed, there were times where Hamilton pushed hard, particularly after the second and final set of pitstops, to try and catch Verstappen but, though he reeled the Dutchman in a fair bit at points, it always looked as though the Red Bull man had things covered.
Certainly, that was how Lewis felt post-race when speaking to the media, simply saying that even if he had got really close to challenging for the lead, he felt Red Bull and Verstappen would have been quick enough to put the hammer down themselves and pull away once more.
“I gave it absolutely everything today, flat-out. I pushed as hard as I could, but they were just too quick for us,” he said. “He was faster today, they were on another level that I didn’t have an answer for most of the laps. “There wasn’t a lot I could do to answer the lap times he was doing already in stint one already.
“Max was just managing whereas I was flat out just trying to stay as close as possible,” he continued. “Even if we’d have got everything right today with the traffic, the pit stops and the strategy, it’d still have been tough to get by them.”
An interesting admission from Hamilton, then, and he’ll be hoping that he and his car can get that bit closer at Monza with the Italian Grand Prix upon us this coming weekend.
