Lewis Hamilton receives a three-place grid move for the Dutch GP

Lewis Hamilton will start the Dutch Grand Prix from 15th place after being demoted three places for impeding Sergio Pérez in qualifying.

The Mercedes driver set the twelfth fastest time at Zandvoort on Saturday after having problems with the balance of his car.

During the opening lap of qualifying, he was caught on the outside of Turn 9 as Perez closed in on a fast lap.

The race director ruled that Hamilton had obstructed the Red Bull driver, who had to abort his lap, and gave him a grid penalty.

“The driver of Car 44 (Hamilton) was on an in-lap and was informed by the team that Car 11 (Perez) was closing in on a fast lap as he entered Turn 8,” the race control statement said.

“He then went off the track at the exit of Turn 8 with the intention of making way for Car 11.”

“However, when Car 11 arrived, Car 44 had already entered Turn 9 and was reversing back to the racing line at the exit of Turn 9, clearly impeding Car 11.

“The race directors conclude that although there was a warning from the team and the driver attempted to avoid the other car, he could have braked harder to avoid obstructing the other car. They therefore consider the obstruction to be unnecessary in terms of the regulations. Therefore, one starting grid position will be moved back in line with previous decisions.”

Before the penalty was imposed, Hamilton described his qualifying as a “nightmare”.

“We changed the car (setup) quite a lot and today it was a nightmare,” he said. “The car was extremely snappy. Yesterday there was a lot of understeer and then we tried to eliminate that and went too far in the other direction.”

“From the moment I drove with Checo (Perez), it was like a domino effect. Then the balance became more and more snappy, the oversteer more and more severe. It was terrible.”