Lewis Hamilton has been handed a welcomed boost ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, picking up a place on the starting grid after Kevin Magnussen was resigned to a pit-lane start.
The seven-time world champion endured a tumultuous qualifying session at Zandvoort on Saturday, dropping out in Q2 along with Ferrari‘s Carlos Sainz.
That wasn’t the end of the pain for the legendary Brit though. Hamilton picked up a three-place grid penalty for impeding Sergio Perez in Q1, dropping him from 12th on the grid to 15th.
Hamilton has since managed to pick up a couple of positions though. First, Alex Albon, who ended Q3 in an impressive P8, was disqualified from qualifying after failing the post-race inspection.
Then, on the morning of the race, the stewards posted a document confirming that Magnussen had taken a new energy store and control electronics.
Those changes bumped Magnussen out of his P13 starting grid slot, resigning him to a pit-lane start. Hamilton therefore gained another position, taking up the space vacated by the Dane.
While Hamilton will welcome the free positions, the news will likely do little to boost the seven-time world champion’s mood heading into what promises to be a difficult Dutch GP experience.
“It was a pretty shocking session,” he complained to Sky Sports F1 on Saturday. “These things happen and it’s done now but it definitely doesn’t feel good. It all went badly the moment the situation with Perez happened.
“I did my best to get out of the way, I was as far to the left as possible, but the timing was bad. It was a domino effect from that moment, it went from bad to worse.”
