The Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) imposed his law at home, at the Formula One Grand Prix of the Netherlands, supported by his people and coming out the winner, again, of a battle with Ferrari and Mercedes that was conditioned by the incidents on the track that sank the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and ended up ruining the race of the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), but not that of Fernando Alonso (Alpine), who came back seven places.
One more victory for the champion and Red Bull, not as abundant as in Belgium a week before, and another blunder for Ferrari, which began to destroy Sainz’s unlucky race with a stop of more than 12 seconds for forgetting the left rear tire.
THE CHOICE OF TIRES
Verstappen and the two cars of the ‘cavallino’ started with soft, but the Dutchman made his debut after having saved a game in Q2 on Saturday. The mount was chosen by most of the drivers except six: the two Mercedes, the British Lando Norris (McLaren), the German Mick Schumacher (Haas), the Thai Alexander Albon (Williams) and the Danish Kevin Magnussen (Haas).
Check out was clean. The leader covered Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz did the same with Lewis Hamilton, who came to touch him, without consequences. Russell lost one position to Lando Norris, although he regained it on lap four, and Ocon gained three to move up to ninth, something that Fernando Alonso, thirteenth, failed to achieve. The two-time champion, with the better pace, lost time behind Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri).
The only shock in the first laps was caused by Kevin Magnussen, who lost control of his car, went into the gravel, touched the wall and, miraculously, was able to return to the track and continue the race.
Going through lap 10, Verstappen was enjoying 1.7 seconds over Leclerc, with Sainz already off the hook and with Hamilton in the Ferrari’s rear-view mirrors.
ALONSO’S COMEBACK AND THE FERRARI DISASTER
Alonso managed to overtake Gasly at that point in the race and began to come back to make up for a bad Saturday in which he was slowed down by the Red Bull of ‘Checo’ Pérez. On the twelfth lap, on the inside, he passed Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) before pitting on the next lap for hard shoes. He won another two due to the strategy of Schumacher, who changed tires despite having started with media and spent 10 seconds in the pit lane, and that of his teammate Esteban Ocon.
Little time was invested by the son of the seven-time champion compared to Ferrari’s disastrous change of wheels with Sainz. The 55 came in to protect himself on lap 15, his team forgot about the left rear tire and he dropped 12.7 seconds. He lost position with Pérez, who couldn’t help but run over Ferrari’s gun, and with Hamilton. Nothing to do with Leclerc’s 2.5 three laps later. Sainz had to row on the track due to another mistake by others.
THE VERSTAPPEN-MERCEDES PULSE
The two Mercedes, initially at one stop, led when Verstappen switched to mids on lap 19. Russell had to hold off the champion, but on the first try, wide at Tarzan on lap 28, the Red Bull He was already ahead of Hamilton’s teammate, who went to the ‘pit lane’ in lap 30 to get tough and returned to the track six seconds behind Pérez.
The Mexican did teamwork with the British, resisted more than Russell, did not let him pass the first, although he had to block, and could not avoid it in the second option that the Stevenage pilot had. The one from Mercedes did not have an unexpected guest, the four-time German champion Sebastian Vettel, who joined from the pits. Hamilton had to contain Pérez and saved the situation, but lost some very important seconds.
Russell took advantage of it to overtake the Mexican shortly after and also hit his teammate in the star.
PUZZLING TSUNODA
As the race approached 50 laps, Tsunoda and Alpha Tauri baffled the grid and handed victory to Verstappen. Or so it seemed.
First, the Japanese complained on the radio that the wheels had not been properly tightened, he stopped on the track, released the belt and then the team told him that the tires were fine. He returned to pit lane, was ‘tied up’, came out again and parked in a Zandvoort loophole, forcing the virtual safety car to be brought out.
That performance negatively affected Ferrari (mainly Leclerc), who had just come in to change tires, and Mercedes, who ran out of options to complicate Verstappen.
THE BOTTAS INCIDENT AND THE FALL OF HAMILTON
Another incident, this time due to a mechanical problem with the Alfa Romeo of Finn Valtteri Bottas, who was left lying on the finish straight, forced the safety to be taken out and even diverted the cars through the pit lane.
Hamilton did not change tires, Verstappen and Russell, like most, yes, the race was relaunched with 12 laps to go. The Dutchman, like when he won the championship last year, overtook him right away, almost over the finish line (he had to pass him after crossing it), in part because the Briton rushed to open the race.
The leader went for his tenth win, the fourth in a row, the Mercedes, to Hamilton’s anger, exchanged positions, and the Stevenage team, from fighting for victory, went on to stay off the podium when he was overtaken by Leclerc.
Sainz moved up a position by overtaking Pérez to take fifth, but was handed a five-second penalty for an unsafe pit exit as Alonso passed, who fended off Norris in the battle for seventh.
With the punishment to the Madrilenian, Alonso finished sixth after a comeback of seven places, to add for the tenth consecutive race, a streak that began in Spain on May 22.
The next race of the Formula 1 World Championship will be next weekend at the Monza circuit with the Italian Grand Prix at stake, with the drivers’ championship even more expensive for Verstappen (109 over Leclerc and Pérez) and the constructors’ , for Red Bull (135 over Ferrari and 30 more over Mercedes). v
