Lewis Hamilton crashes out of Dutch GP - ESPN

ZANDVOORT, Netherlands — Lewis Hamilton crashed out of the Dutch Grand Prix as his difficult first season as a Ferrari driver continued.

The seven-time champion crashed out of seventh place on Lap 23 of 72 as light rain started to fall around the circuit.

He had just radioed Ferrari to encourage the team to pit him when he appeared to take too much speed into the banked Turn 3, lost the rear of his Ferrari on the painted advertising lining the corner, and crashed into the barrier.

Hamilton said the crash took him by surprise.

"[It] took me by complete surprise what happened now, I lost the rear up the bank, and that was it.

«Apart from that, it's been a really solid weekend. I feel like I made progress, just overall, and my approach and everything. To come away with nothing is definitely painful.»

Hamilton added: «I'm sad for the team, as I said, because I really wanted to get those points for the team today, and I honestly felt like I had the pace in the cars ahead of me. I was hoping to see real progress in the race.

»No no, I'm fine, I feel fine mentally. I've felt lots of positives, I felt I was making progress, I was catching the car ahead. It's tough to have a result like that for sure. But I've been racing for so long, I've had God knows how many races… You can probably count on one hand that sort of incident."

Although Hamilton was unharmed, the damage to the front of his car meant he was unable to continue in the race and he retired on the spot.

It was Hamilton's first retirement from a race as a Ferrari driver and his first failure to finish a grand prix since Austin last year when he was still a Mercedes driver.

He has struggled for performance since his arrival at Ferrari at the start of the season, but was