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Lewis Hamilton can still have hope at the Dutch GP after a miserable day in Sprint Qualifying as the FIA’s rules allow the 41-year-old the chance to tweak parts of his Ferrari SF-26. After looking handy in Free Practice 1 by finishing the day 0.190 off-the-pace but without completing a second lap on the soft tyres, the seven-time Formula 1 world champion looked to be in good stead. Teammate Charles Leclerc was still a tenth behind his time and it looked as though the Brit held the upper hand pace-wise after some rocky races in terms of execution since his victory at the Barcelona GP. The dip looked to be over as he seeks to close the gap to Kimi Antonelli in the standings, as the 19-year-old Mercedes star holds a 50-point cushion with 12 races to go 2026 F1 season, including this weekend at Zandvoort. However, those execution issues appeared to resurface once again later on Friday as the 106-time Grand Prix winner’s pace evaporated once Ferrari placed the new floor on their car. The upgrade aims to close the gap to the Silver Arrows and hold McLaren at arm’s length, but on the veteran’s car it seemed to do the opposite as he completed SQ1 in fourth, SQ2 in fifth and finally SQ3 in seventh – only ever slipping backwards. More from the Dutch GP Catch up with Total Motorsport’s latest Dutch GP coverage, including George Russell’s Sprint victory at Zandvoort, the full Sprint classification, Max Verstappen’s McLaren comments, Mercedes’ driver relationship outlook, and Lando Norris’ push for improvement. In all sessions, he was behind Leclerc as the Monegasque star seemed to gel with the new upgrade better and Hamilton was left seeking answers come the end of Sprint Qualifying on August 21. “Yeah, no, not a good, not a good session unfortunately,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. “This is the way it is. “FP1 felt good, we made subtle adjustments to the car, but then we got into qualifying… It was a, completely different car. “So, need to figure out what went wrong and then, yeah, we’ll do our best tomorrow.” Why Hamilton can still have hope at Dutch GP Fortunately, there is a chance for Hamilton to turn his fortunes around as the FIA will relax some of the parc ferme rules to allow teams to make changes heading into Grand Prix Qualifying. Once the Sprint Race has finished, some set-up restrictions are lifted, giving teams an opportunity to make meaningful changes to their cars before Qualifying and Sunday’s Dutch GP. Ferrari can use the information gathered to address the weaknesses he faces and improve the car’s performance as engineers can adjust areas such as suspension settings, ride height, aerodynamic configuration, and energy deployment. The team can therefore respond to how the car behaved during Sprint Qualifying and aim to head back towards his pace in FP1, rather than being locked into the set-up he is no longer enjoying. This can significantly alter the car’s balance and race performance and could allow him to fight back for pole position, and perhaps the victory on Sunday too as he chases down an eighth world title. “We will look at it,” Hamilton added, of prospective changes. “We’ll look at the data and then we’ll make a determination, but we’ve just got to go through the data and figure it out. “Charles [Leclerc] was in a slightly different place to me, so a bit closer to where I was.”