Hamilton 'gave it absolutely everything', Red Bull 'too fast'

Lewis Hamilton insisted that he had few regrets after coming second in the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, saying that he couldn't have done anything more on the day.

“I gave it absolutely everything today, flat-out. I pushed as hard as I could, but they were just too quick for us," he told the media after the finish of the race won by Max Verstappen.

"He was faster today, they were on another level that I didn't have an answer for most of the laps," he admitted. "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 added. "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.

• Read also: Verstappen retakes title lead after Zandvoort victory

"We didn't get those elements spot on, but either way, we pushed as much as we could and we'll take it offline, debrief and see how we could have improved.

"We needed everything to be perfect to have the slightest chance to pass him on strategy," he suggested. "Pit stops needed to be on point, start and traffic also, but none of those three were ideal today,

"We stopped too early in that second part and it had been a point where we'd got through traffic," he told Sky Sports F1 later.

"I lost a good second from him and I needed time to catch up and close that gap up before we did the stop," he continued. "Then I came out behind traffic, so I couldn't actually implement and I don't know how they didn't see that.

"But it is what it is and we'll work through it," he said. “Congrats to Max, they just did a better job all round, they definitely were faster today.

Verstappen had got a strong start and then controlled the rest of the race to perfection, shadowing Hamilton's two-stop strategy by pitting a lap later on each occasion.

Although he closed the gap in the second half of the race, Hamilton eventually had to concede victory with lapped traffic thwarting his final attack.

"It was very hard to navigate through all the traffic, but they [Red Bull] just had that upper edge and it’s very hard to follow here," Hamilton noted.

"The reason it was difficult was because I was within three seconds," he explained. "The tyres were actually pretty good this weekend. I was flat out the whole race. There was no tyre management, I was just trying to keep as close as possible.

"Every time he got traffic they [the slower cars] just moved out of the way," he added. "I’m going to call him Noah from now on, man!", presumably meaning to refer to Moses who parted the Red Sea in the Bible tales.

Hamilton then made an extra stop just before the end of the race in order to bolt on a set of fresh tyres and take the bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the race, which he thoroughly enjoyed doing.

"The fastest lap at the end was one of my favourite parts of the race. It's an incredible track to drive a single lap on low fuel."

Taking that bonus point means means that while Verstappen has retaken the lead of the drivers championship, it's by just three points.

Mercedes actually extend their lead in the constructors standings thanks to Valtteri bottas finishing in third.

"As a team we got second and third, some really good points on them on the constructors. That’s a super important one, and we’ll come back next week fighting right to the end.

"It was an incredibly difficult race out there, physically and mentally I think it was one of the toughest.

"But it's an amazing track," he said. "This is now one of my favourite tracks, so I’m looking forward to coming back next year.

"It’s been an amazing weekend,” he insisted, despite the clear support from the grandstands for his rival. “I’ve had an amazing time here in Holland, thanks to the crowd.”

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