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Lewis Hamilton is optimistic about his chances in the Dutch Grand Prix after making a significant improvement in his Ferrari’s balance in qualifying. He said he was surprised how much better his car felt on his way to fifth on the grid in qualifying after finishing seventh in the sprint race earlier today.“I’m so much happier with the car,” said Hamilton. “Honestly, it’s crazy. We changed a lot of things, it doesn’t really look that big, but the difference it makes in the car is unbelievable.” Hamilton said he felt happy with the car at the beginning of the weekend before qualifying for the sprint race. “The difficult thing is I started P1 with good confidence, I lost it all in [sprint race] qualifying and all through the race I had no confidence in the balance. It was constantly breaking away from me. “Then I go into [grand prix] qualifying and the car’s there, so the balance is there at least. So I was building and building and building. [If we had] some more laps I think we could have probably done better but I think ultimately the tyres were the issue for us.” The Ferrari driver said he feels “a lot more optimistic for tomorrow with the balance that I have.” However his team mate Charles Leclerc, who finished second in the sprint race, was less happy after taking sixth on the grid for the grand prix. “We’ll have to look at two things, really,” he said. “The first one is mostly the fact that we started changing engine modes from Q1 to Q2 to Q3. Then the car is just doing different things underneath me, which is not something I enjoy, and we’ve probably missed a bit of performance there. “Second is the prep[aration] lap that we have done that the others seem to not have done. I don’t feel like my tyres would have been ready without that preparation lap, but we’ve got to be open-minded and look at what the others have done.” Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and Miss nothing from RaceFans Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here: 2026 Dutch Grand Prix - Small change made “unbelievable” improvement in Hamilton’s Ferrari - Lawson pleased with “good lap” after qualifying a tenth off Verstappen on return - Norris beats Mercedes pair to Dutch Grand Prix pole position - 2026 Dutch Grand Prix grid - McLaren’s car is “terrible” in low-speed corners – Norris