Lewis Hamilton speaks out on Dutch GP crash after 'very unusual' F1 incident

Lewis Hamilton has admitted it is "very unusual" for him to crash out of a race. The Ferrari driver said he did not know why he crashed during the Dutch Grand Prix in a bizarre incident which saw the Brit lose control of his car on the banked third corner of the Zandvoort track.

Rain had been falling in the minutes leading up to the incident and replays showed the Ferrari understeered onto a painted section just off the circuit. He appeared to lose all grip and buried the side of his car into the barrier, snapping off his front-right wheel.

But Hamilton was not ready to say that it was the definitive cause of his crash as he spoke to Sky Sports in the media pen while the race was still ongoing. He said: "I'm really not sure, I'll have to look back at it. As I went up the bank, the rear snapped out and I couldn't recover it."

Despite that, Hamilton seemed pleased with his his car had felt up to that point. He finished a lowly 12th in Budapest four weeks ago, the last race before the summer break, but was running seventh at the time of his crash and close behind George Russell in the Mercedes.

Hamilton said: "It was a bit twitchy, the car, but I think we made real progress this weekend and the pace was looking pretty decent. I was catching George and I think I had the pace of a few cars ahead of me, but very unusual to not finish a race and to go out so early is definitely not great, but it is what it is."

The timing of the crash was also unhelpful for his team-mate Charles Leclerc, who had only just stopped for fresh tyres when Hamilton lost control. That meant others were able to change tyres while losing less time behind the safety car and Russell came out ahead of the other Ferrari.

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That then sparked a furious duel between them, which culminated in Leclerc slipping up the inside of the Mercedes to retake fifth place. But Russell complained that his rival had cut to corner to get that move done and the stewards decided that the incident would be investigated after the race.

But if the Monegasque is given a penalty, then it will have to be served next Sunday at Monza. Leclerc became the other driver who failed to finish the race as he was taken out by Kimi Antonelli.

It was a true rookie error from the Mercedes teenager who was far too ambitious in trying to slip up the inside of the Ferrari at turn three. Instead, he understeered on the banked corner and slammed into the rear-left wheel of Leclerc who became a passenger.

His Ferrari span around and slammed into the barrier, ripping off the nose of the car while also the rear corner of the car had been destroyed. He clambered out of his racing machine and sat on a sand dune to watch the rest of the race, clearly deflated with how the day had gone.