Yuki Tsunoda receives 3 place grid penalty for impeding Lewis Hamilton during his fast lap

Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda were involved in an impeding incident in the Q2 qualifying session, with the latter receiving a three-place grid drop for the Dutch Grand Prix.

In the final runs of the Q2 session, Tsunoda was involved in a major impeding incident with the Mercedes driver. The Japanese driver, who was on a slow lap, blocked the fast-approaching Hamilton on the exit of Turn 13, failing to make way for the driver on the hot lap.

Yuki Tsunoda had qualified 14th but dropped down to 17th with no change to Lewis Hamilton's starting position as he qualified 13th. The stewards made the decision after hearing from both the drivers and the team representatives after the session.

Tsunoda pleaded to the stewards that he had let another just pass by and had slowed down to establish a gap. However, the stewards ruled that the AlphaTauri driver could have stayed off the dryline and hence the impeding was unnecessary.

"Tsunoda was on the dry racing line at the exit of Turn 13 preparing for his fast lap and had not fully come up to speed and therefore impeded Hamilton. Tsunoda explained that he had been passed by another car and decided to remain slow in order to regain his gap," the FIA document read.

Despite being impeded, Lewis Hamilton reckons the incident wasn't to blame for his elimination in Q2. Hamilton suggested that he had overheated his tires in the final run and hence couldn't advance into Q3.

Hamilton started the weekend on a good note after being in the mix with the front runners in Friday's practice session. However, a disastrous qualifying session derailed his weekend when his teammate George Russell will be starting on the second row.

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Lewis Hamilton expands on his shock qualifying exit

After setting quick times on Friday, a wet qualifying session threw a curveball affecting Lewis Hamilton's progress through the weekend.

The seven-time world champion explained that he overheated his intermediate tires in the final runs and thus couldn't improve on his lap times.

“I did two fast laps at the end and the tires overheated, so I couldn’t improve on the last lap,” he said to Sky Sports.

He also suggested that George Russell had opted for a different setup, which he believes worked well in the session, as the younger Brit ended up qualifying third.

Hamilton isn't too optimistic about his race pace but hopes to make progress on a twisty circuit at Zandvoort, where overtaking isn't easy.

“The same as I just qualified, which wasn’t really good,” he added. “Hopefully when the car’s a little bit heavier [with fuel], maybe we’ll be able to progress forward. It’s not an easy track to move forwards on, but tomorrow’s a new day, so I’ll give it my best tomorrow.”

Catch Lewis Hamilton and others live in action in the Dutch Grand Prix this Sunday (August 27), with the green flag dropping at 13:00 UTC.