Mercedes boss lashes out at the impeding incident that cost Lewis Hamilton in the 2023 F1 Dutch GP qualifying

Mercedes boss lashes out at the impeding incident in the 2023 F1 Dutch GP qualifying that cost Lewis Hamilton a Q3 slot. The driver was impeded by Yuki Tsunoda in the final sector on his last lap and that led to Lewis not having enough time to make up whatever the gap was to reach Q3.

For the impeding incident, Yuki Tsunoda was eventually given a 3-place grid penalty but that did nothing for Lewis Hamilton's session. The Mercedes driver was knocked out in Q2 and will be starting the race in a compromised position.

Toto Wolff was furious after the session and laid the blame for a poor session entirely on the impeding incident. Talking to the media including Sportskeeda, Toto Wolff said:

"It’s a shame because the pace was there all weekend and we would have had two cars competing right in the front. Overall the session a mixture between maybe being too close to [Lando] Norris, but that’s not the main thing, the impeding is just a disaster in Q2 and I think on this quickest lap, he was impeded by Tsunoda going into the final straight and that cost the position."

He added:

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

Wolff reacts to the strong qualifying session of Lewis Hamilton's teammate

While Lewis Hamilton himself was knocked out in Q2, his teammate George Russell made his way through to Q3 and will start the race in P3. Wolff was happy with the result put together by the young driver as he was struggling a bit early in the session. Wolff said:

"Yeah, that makes me smile more because he had a difficult weekend also and then it came together. He was very quick at the end, we probably lost two, three-tenths in the first sector, so it could have been P2. But we need to concentrate on the future and winning races and not being sad about P2 versus P3.”

Lewis Hamilton will be hoping to do a better job of closing the gap to the front of the grid during the race as he starts the race in P13.