Max Verstappen admits his path to victory was not “straightforward” at the Dutch Grand Prix.
The reigning world champion was in control early on but that changed when Mercedes’ decision to run a one-stop strategy looked set to give their drivers track position.
However, two interruptions due to mechanical issues for other cars resulted in a bit of a lottery in regard to strategy, with Red Bull opting to pit Verstappen on both occasions.
“It was not a straightforward race,” he commented post-race. “We had to push the whole race. Of course with the Safety Car [and] Virtual Safety Car, making the right calls was always a bit of a question mark.
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“Before that Safety Car, I thought it was okay to [go to] the end with the hard tyres, even though we were a bit slower.
“But then of course the Safety Car came out and I didn’t think we were going to keep it up if we didn’t pit, so we went for the soft tyres.”
That would promote Lewis Hamilton into the lead with Verstappen in second after George Russell also chose to make a third stop.
But the Red Bull driver wasted little time in passing his 2021 title rival when the race resumed.
“I had a good run on the restart, we timed that really well out of the final corner with the banking, and then you could see the draft was quite strong and we got ahead.”
Verstappen wasted no time getting past Hamilton at the restart ?#DutchGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/d3muMaULsE
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 4, 2022
Back-to-back wins in Zandvoort took Verstappen up to 10 for the 2022 season and saw his championship lead exceed 100 points.
And the 24-year-old paid tribute to the “unbelievable support” he had from the Orange Army.
“It’s incredible to win again,” he said. “It’s always special to win your home Grand Prix, it was already last year.
“This year I had to work for it even more, so an incredible weekend and I’m really happy we’ve got the Dutch Grand Prix win.
“I’m really happy all of you guys came here to support me. Proud to be Dutch!” he declared.
To win my home race again is amazing. The weekend was absolutely great, thank you for the tremendous support Orange Army ?? pic.twitter.com/a08dgfEiwY
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) September 4, 2022