Mercedes has tyre advantage over Verstappen at Zandvoort

The Mercedes are struggling in the first sector at the Zandvoort circuit this weekend. Especially in the steep Hugenholtz corner Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas lose a few tenths to Max Verstappen. Hamilton is fed up with the fact that he could only do twenty laps on Friday.

In the first free practice session, Sebastian Vettel' s stoppage prevented more than 30 minutes of driving and in the afternoon session, the seven-time world champion himself dropped out with engine problems. "I didn't do any long runs on Friday and I don't know how the car will feel with a full tank," he told Auto, Motor und Sport.

Mercedes advantages

Mercedes does have two advantages though. Sergio Perez is at the back of the grid and Verstappen has to do it on his own at the front. Furthermore Hamilton and Bottas still have two sets of mediums at their disposal, while the rest of the grid only has one set of the yellow tyres in stock. Mercedes and Red Bull will both start on softs, but the former has the advantage of being able to run two sets of mediums, while Red Bull will probably have to run two sets of hard tyres.

A two-stopper is certainly not out of the question, as Zandvoort is pretty tough on tyres and the fact that a safety car seems almost a guarantee. "We want to be as flexible as possible there," said Mercedes' strategists.