Max Verstappen delighted his home crowd by emerging victorious in the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday.
The reigning world champion looked to have the race under control early on, but Mercedes’ decision to run a one-stop strategy versus Verstappen’s two put that under threat.
A Virtual Safety Car and then a full Safety Car swung the pendulum, but ultimately a decisive pass on Lewis Hamilton paved the way for Verstappen to take the win at Zandvoort.
Race Review
A perfect start from Verstappen to hold the lead into Tarzan as Hamilton and Carlos Sainz made light contact behind.
Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon gained places in to the top 10 as Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda lost positions on the opening lap.
Lando Norris got the jump on George Russell up to sixth, but the Mercedes wasn’t delayed for long as the top six held station.
Behind, a mistake for Kevin Magnussen saw him slide off and tag the barrier at Turn 2 before continuing.
A train began to emerge behind Tsunoda with Fernando Alonso making moves on both AlphaTauris before the pit stops began.
At Haas, a slow stop for Schumacher drops him outside the points, before a similar disaster at Ferrari as a late call for Sainz meant the mechanics were not ready when he pitted.
Sergio Perez stopped on the same lap as the Spaniard and ran over the stray wheel gun in Ferrari’s box without consequence.
Verstappen and Charles Leclerc changed their tyres without drama leaving the two Mercedes, who started on mediums, in the lead for the first time this season.
Their one-two wouldn’t last long though as Max swept passed Russell with DRS into Tarzan for second before Hamilton pitted from the lead.
Russell followed his teammate in for hard tyres two laps later as Mercedes’ one-stop strategy brought them into the battle for victory.
On fresh tyres, Hamilton caught Perez for third and, despite some strong defence, barged past the Red Bull into Turn 1.
A stray Sebastian Vettel exiting the pits almost allowed the Mexican back ahead, but Lewis continued ahead before Russell also swept ahead of Checo one lap later.
Just as Mercedes looked set to jump Verstappen, problems for Tsunoda caused a Virtual Safety Car that allowed the Red Bull to pit and resume ahead.
Hamilton and Russell also stopped for new tyres and continued ahead of Leclerc, who dropped to fourth after pitting in green flag conditions.
More drama unfolded as engine issues for Bottas led to a full Safety Car with Verstappen and Russell pitting again for soft tyres, dropping behind Hamilton who didn’t pit, much to his frustration.
At the restart, Max wasted little time as he blasted ahead of Lewis on the run to Turn 1 to retake the lead.
Hamilton’s anger built as Russell and then Leclerc also passed the Briton dropping him off the podium.
In the lead though, Verstappen held a comfortable lead as he claimed back-to-back wins at Zandvoort!
Russell claimed second ahead of Leclerc and Hamilton. Sainz crossed the line fifth but had a five-second penalty for an unsafe release at his final pit-stop.
That promoted Perez to P5 in the second Red Bull. Alonso led the midfield in sixth ahead of Norris and the demoted Sainz in eighth.
Esteban Ocon improved to ninth in the second Alpine with Lance Stroll completing the top 10.
Full results from Zandvoort can be seen below:
? END OF RACE (LAP 72/72) ?
What a roller-coaster race that was! ?#DutchGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/9cHNwkqVPz
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 4, 2022