Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth during Qualifying for the 2026 F1 Dutch GP, starting on the third row alongside teammate Leclerc after a weekend that tested his patience. A lock-up in Q1 and a difficult Sprint Qualifying session on Friday left him rebuilding confidence lap by lap. By the time Q3 arrived, the work paid off. Hamilton set a 1:11.494 on his final run to secure fifth, 0.064 seconds quicker than Leclerc.
Lando Norris took pole with a 1:11.163. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli completed the top three, with Oscar Piastri fourth.
Hamilton on rebuilding confidence during Qualifying for the 2026 F1 Dutch GP
Speaking after qualifying, Hamilton described the process of finding his way back to the car’s sweet spot after losing what he had in Free Practice when he looked the quicker Ferrari.
“Yeah, I was much much happier with the car. In quali, thankfully. But, it’s not that helpful when you, it’s like, when it comes to building confidence, it’s like you’re putting brick by brick, you’re putting it down, building a wall, knock down that confidence that I had in FP1, didn’t have it through Sprint Qualifying, and then I just basically was starting again, building. The car was much better, I’m much happier with it. I’m excited for tomorrow,” Hamilton stated.
Hamilton on tyre warm-up problems throughout Qualifying
Hamilton also addressed the lock-up in Q1, which sent him into the gravel. He pointed to tyre temperature as the key factor behind both that incident and the wider struggles across the session.
“Yeah, I was struggling with locking. Didn’t have it through the rest of the weekend, and now all of a sudden, with the set-up that I have, started locking the front right. But I think it was mostly tyre temperature.”
The issue was not isolated to Q1. Hamilton explained the tyre warm-up problem ran through the entirety of qualifying for the 2026 F1 Dutch GP:
“Yeah, I mean, I think the tyres were the biggest culprit today. Just really struggling to get the tyres to work, and it was like they’re kind of near the end of the first sector, that’s where we lost most of our time. And then they get better through the lap. Just do an out lap and a prep lap, and the tyres are still not ready for Turn 1, it’s nuts. So, you just don’t have the confidence to attack Turn 1. I think that was the biggest difference today.”
Asked whether other teams were managing the tyres better, Hamilton agreed without hesitation. “I mean, they definitely did yesterday. I mean, they did today as well,” Hamilton responded.
When asked whether Ferrari could have gone straight from the out lap like some of their rivals appeared to, Hamilton was clear they could not.
“Yeah, yeah. Couldn’t do an out lap and straight in. The tyres were cold, basically. So, I don’t know how they did there at the end. We couldn’t, so luckily the rain didn’t come, and we got another lap in.”
Hamilton on race pace and what Sunday could bring at the 2026 F1 Dutch GP
Hamilton was asked whether, like Leclerc, he had been caught up in changing settings between the Sprint and Qualifying sessions. The Ferrari driver kept his answer short.
“No, I think we made a change as well, but it was pretty straightforward for me.”
With Ferrari’s tyre warm-up struggles potentially working in their favour over a longer race distance, Hamilton was asked whether the qualifying disadvantage could flip into a race advantage.
“I think our race pace was better today. Mine wasn’t great, but Charles’ particularly was good. I think the car feels much better. I think it’s going to be better tomorrow. So, I think we’ll probably be able to hold on to the guys up ahead at least. Strategy is going to be key, out lap, those sorts of things,” Hamilton concluded.
