Front row possible without yellows, but pole “highly optimistic”

Mercedes bounced back from a difficult weekend at Spa to qualify fourth and sixth for the Dutch Grand Prix with Hamilton and team-mate George Russell, getting in the mix with the Ferrari and Red Bull cars.

Hamilton ended qualifying four-tenths of a second off Max Verstappen’s pole position time, but was forced to abandon his final effort in Q3 following a spin for Sergio Perez.

“I think if we hadn’t had the yellow flag, we’d have hopefully been fighting for the…