Whenever a Williams racer crashes in F1, headlines on Lewis Hamilton take center stage. At the historic grand finale of the 2021 Championship in Abu Dhabi, Williams driver Nicholas Latifi had a huge crash. The incident led to the safety car coming out on the race track. As a result, Lewis lost his lead over Max Verstappen and subsequently lost the fight for his 8th World Championship. While that was quite a sad memory for Hamilton, this time, when another Williams racer crashed, the Briton made sure it turned into a wholesome moment.

As the F1 summer break is now over, all the racers including Hamilton have reported to their duties at the Zandvoort circuit. Preparing for Sunday’s Dutch GP, they had their third Free Practice session scheduled a few hours before the Qualifying. However, Logan Sargeant rammed into the barrels with his FW46 leaving the banked Hugenholtz turn during FP3. With that, the red flag was shown only 20 minutes into the session and thus, the audience who braved the rainy conditions to watch it had to return empty-handed. But Lewis Hamilton had some surprise in store for them.

The seven-time World Champion came out of the cockpit of his Mercedes W15 just when the FP3 was called off. However, instead of going to his team’s pit to discuss strategy, he made way to the fans who had just realized they would miss the practice session. Meeting with the fans, Hamilton gave a huge surprise to all of them by taking photos for them. One of the luckiest young boys in the fans’ section got to touch Hamilton’s steering wheel and the Stevenage native even taught him about the various parts!

Lewis Hamilton seemed to be in high spirits even though the FIA stewards canceled the FP3. At the time of Sargeant’s crash, the 39-year-old was running 15th on the grid. But what did he have to say about his team Mercedes’ chances of snatching a win at the Dutch GP?

Lewis Hamilton sounded confident about Mercedes’ ‘top-5’ chances in Zandvoort

Mercedes seemed to be in a thunderous form right before the summer break started. At the last race till now, in Belgium, the Silver Arrows had a 1-2 finish before the stewards disqualified George Russell. Stepping into the Dutch GP, Hamilton must hope his team maintains its form that was visible in the latter races of the first part of this season. So, Lewis Hamilton discussed about his hopes from Mercedes’ Dutch GP outing while also talking about some “tweaks” that might make it possible for the German manufacturer to get both its racers up in the front positions.

If Lewis Hamilton’s W15 performs well and gets him a win in Max Verstappen‘s backyard, the results will favor Mercedes’ Championship chase. So, he said, “The car is definitely feeling more alive, and right up there at the front. I don’t know whether or not it’s for the win. We understand the car so much better now so to start off on the right foot from the get-go, and just making small tweaks from there, is definitely very, very helpful. But we’re definitely… at least we’re in the top five.” This verdict came after Lewis Hamilton tested the new upgrades that Mercedes brought to the Belgian GP.

The upgrades are the crucial change the team needed to further push for a Championship challenge against Red Bull and McLaren. Thus, Hamilton has sounded off a warning to his rivals with his claim that Mercedes is going to be in the top 5 this time at the Dutch GP. However, do you think some twist in fate might be in store for Lewis Hamilton? Share in the comments.