Hamilton: As a team we made the wrong decision

Hamilton started the race on Medium tyres as opposed to the Softs that were the choice of most of the cars ahead aiming to offset the rest after a poor qualifying saw him knocked out in Q2 and starting from 13th.

But the rain hit Zandvoort at the first lap, and Mercedes decided to "brave it" through the down pour and delayed their stop, and once they realized it was the wrong choice, it was too late and Hamilton spent the afternoon in catch-up mode.

In the end, Hamilton finished the race that was Red-flagged with seven laps to go in sixth place, having failed to pass Ferrari's Carlos Sainz after the restart.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, the seven-time Formula 1 Champion said: "I feel really good. I didn't know how today was going to go.

"I sat here last night racking my brain 'where did we go wrong? How did we end up in this position?' Then I was figuring out how I could progress up the order," he added referring to his qualifying.

"Then I was the only one on the medium tyre and I wanted to be offset to the people around me, not everyone on the grid.

"That rain came and as a team we made the wrong decision. Ultimately, it was the team's call. We paid the price for that," the Briton lamented.

"We came out last and after that we kept chasing, head down. It was a really good example of when you fall or stumble, to get back up and keep trying. Every time I had to pit, I came out behind and kept chasing.

"I was really happy when I got past the McLaren for example, which isn't easy to do on this track. I was quicker than Sainz at the end. I just needed DRS," Hamilton claimed.

In Mercedes' race report Hamilton summed up his race, he said: "Overall, it's a feeling of what could have been: if we'd made different calls, we had the pace to challenge the top two.

"We weren't far off in the dry - and it would have been good to be in that fight," he concluded.

George Russell in the other Mercedes retired from the race with a puncture and was classified 17th, despite starting from third, on an afternoon when his W14 showed pace but the Mercedes team took the wrong decisions.

"That was a tough one today," Russell said in his team report. "I went into the race expecting to fight for a podium and I ended up P17.

"We were expecting the rain to say for just a few minutes, and it ended up being close to ten. It was ready for inters but I thought I could brave it out for another lap or two if it was only going to be short - but that's not what happened," he explained.

What made matter bittersweet for Mercedes and Russell was the fact that the car was working well this weekend, Russell reflected: "We'd rather have a fast car and a bad day than the opposite, but it was a missed opportunity today.

"At the end, I was side by side with Lando into the chicane at the end of the lap, then we had contact," he said of his race ending contact. "It cost a few points and it was a shame because we had such a fast car today, then our decisions on the weather went against us. But there are still positives to take away from the base pace we showed.

"We knew this circuit could be strong for us - and looking to Monza, it's a totally different beast. We will clear our heads, go in with some new ideas and the learnings from this weekend, and see what we can do," Russell concluded.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff summed up his team's Dutch race, he added: "That was a difficult day for us. In the opening 15 laps, we got pretty much everything wrong that we could have done - and that cost us any chance of fighting for the podium.

"For the next 50 laps until the red flag, it was pretty much business as usual: the car was quick on every tyre compound, we made the right calls and the drivers did a great recovery to P6 and P8. In the final laps, George was unlucky to fall to the back after contact, while Lewis tried everything he could on Sainz but there was no way past.

"In the end, I'd rather we have a quick car and a bad result, than the other way round," the Austrian said echoing Russell's sentiments.

"It was an entertaining race for Formula One - and the kind of day when we should have been part of the action at the front. But if, but and maybe don't count for anything in this sport.

"Now, we need to regroup, understand why we as a team got things wrong today, and go again in Monza next weekend," Wolff concluded.