Toto Wolff blames F1 star for Lewis Hamilton ‘disaster’ at Dutch GP qualifying

Toto Wolff has blamed Yuki Tsunoda for Lewis Hamilton failing to make it out of Q2 at the Dutch Grand Prix qualifying. The Mercedes star will start Sunday’s Grand Prix from 13th place on the grid.

The Silver Arrows were looking relatively quick in the wet conditions but Hamilton was hit with two bits of bad luck in the second qualifying session. Firstly the Brit found himself too close behind Lando Norris and was forced to back off, ruining his first hot lap.

During his final flying lap, Hamilton was impeded by Tsunoda on the straight which took up valuable time.

“It’s shame because the pace was there all weekend and we would have had two cars competing right at the front,” Wolff said. “Overall the session it was a mixture between being too close to Norris but that’s not the main thing. The ipeding is just a disaster in Q2 and I think on his quickest lap he was impeded by Tsunoda on the straight and that cost the position.

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“I think the backing off on the first flying lap was because he was too close to Norris and then you are a little bit out of sync. But the main thing was the impeding. You need to have this one lap at the end and we didn’t have it.”

The positive for Mercedes was that George Russell was able to secure third place. The 25-year-old was on course for the front row until Lando Norris pipped him at the end of Q3. However, Wolff won’t be completely happy until he can discuss his drivers fighting for pole positions, which was once again secured by Max Verstappen.

“That makes me smile more because we had a difficult weekend,” Wolff said of Russell’s P3. “We need to focus on winning races and not being sad on P2 versus P3.”

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After securing P3, Russell said: “Really great session. Qualy was one of my strengths at the start of the year and it has been going a bit wrong recently. It was good to have that break and I came in with a fresh set of ideas, good reset and we are in a great place for tomorrow to fight for the podium.

“The lap was OK. We always struggle when it’s very wet or it’s the crossover onto slicks and we have to get that temperature into the tyres. But we know the Saturday weakness is the strength on Sundays.

“It’s going to be an exciting race. I’m sure Max will be having his Sunday drive and waving to the crowd

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