DUTCH GP: LEWIS HAMILTON, GEORGE RUSSELL SURPRISED BY FERRARI PODIUM

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell of Mercedes. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

ZANDVOORT, Netherlands -- Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell said they were surprised by Ferrari's pace and Charles Leclerc's third-place finish at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Leclerc started sixth before leapfrogging Sergio Pérez and Russell as McLaren's Lando Norris beat home favourite Max Verstappen by 22 seconds on Sunday.

Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz was knocked out in Q2 on Saturday, qualifying 11th, but finished the race in fifth, one tenth of a second behind McLaren's Oscar Piastri.

Hamilton qualified 12th but was later demoted to 15th with a grid penalty for impeding Pérez during the session.

Hamilton, who will join Ferrari next year, said after Sunday's race: "I was definitely surprised when I drove through and saw a Ferrari was on P3.

"If I just qualified like I should've qualified, I think I had the pace today to easily be in the top five. I don't know if we were faster than the Ferrari's but there were elements of our pace which were strong. But the car was not great compared to the last race. We had a lot more pace at the last race. Today we were closer to others."

Russell was equally as surprised by Ferrari's pace, with the 26-year-old admitting he was expecting to be comfortably ahead of them after qualifying and vying for a podium.

"I probably would've finished one, maybe max two places higher but we had no pace, I was just dropping like a stone," Russell said. "[It was] especially a surprise versus Ferrari -- we were expecting to be comfortably ahead of them. Charles was quicker, Carlos catching me, clearly, we got something wrong I think with the tyres. After the first couple of laps, I thought we were on course for a probably podium. I knew the overtaking was going to be difficult.

"I was really shocked at how fast McLaren were; Lando just looked so comfortable out there and it was super impressive to see and we've had six really strong races and then suddenly we've finished almost a minute behind the win today. So you don't lose all of that performance overnight. Yesterday we qualified fourth and clearly didn't get something right today."

- Niamh Lewis