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Max Verstappen fought off Mercedes’ strategic bluffs on course to victory in his maiden home race at Zandvoort, ahead of title rival Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
The Dutchman reclaims the lead of the championship by three points as he did enough to hold off Hamilton all race long in front of his adoring fans.
Starting Grid
On pole position was Verstappen with the Dutchman joined on the front row by championship rival Hamilton who looked to deny the Red Bull driver of a dream home victory.
Row two was occupied by Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly. The AlphaTauri man continued his impressive streak of qualifying performances with a fourth-place start. Ferrari locked out row three, as Charles Leclerc started ahead of Carlos Sainz. Antonio Giovinazzi started from seventh, Esteban Ocon lined up eighth, Fernando Alonso in ninth and Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top 10.
George Russell followed in 11th alongside Lance Stroll in 12th. Lando Norris failed to make Q3 for the first time this season as he started 13th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in 14th. Sebastian Vettel followed in 15th, Robert Kubica in 16th with the two Haas’ of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazpin in 17th and 18th.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi both started from the pit lane as their teams made component changes under Parc-Ferme regulations.
As It Happened
The lights went out and Verstappen crucially held the lead into turn one ahead of Hamilton. Bottas had a poor getaway but managed to stay ahead of Gasly and Leclerc as the top five remained unchanged.
Both Ferrari drivers took the low line through turn three which allowed the top four to pull away. Alonso took advantage of the hold-up and swung his Alpine car around the high line of the corner and up to seventh with Giovinazzi dropping down to 10th after the opening sequence of corners.
Overtakes soon became sparse, but Latifi danced around the outside of Mazepin at turn one on lap 13. Three laps later, the Russian conceded another position to Perez at the turn 11 chicane. The Mexican, a man on a mission after a poor qualifying yesterday, made a brilliant move around the outside of Latifi at the same corner on lap 18.
Hamilton boxed for mediums at the end of lap 20 and exactly a lap later the race leader replied to Mercedes’ first move. Despite losing a second to Hamilton’s undercut, the Dutchman crucially stayed ahead of the seven-time world champion.
On lap 23, Tsunoda was the next driver to be overtaken by Perez who made yet another move at turn 11 to gain another position.
The Japanese driver’s teammate, Gasly, pitted for new tyres and came out in seventh, sandwiched between the Alpine cars of Alonso and Ocon.
With just over a third of the race gone, Bottas led as he was yet to make a stop and was rapidly losing time to Verstappen and Hamilton behind. The Brit, running third, was a lot more comfortable while circulating with the medium tyres as he managed to keep his championship rival in his sights.
Verstappen reclaimed the race lead on lap 31. Bottas held up the Red Bull man throughout lap 30 as he struggled for pace which allowed Hamilton to catch up. Once Bottas conceded first place to Verstappen, the Finn allowed his teammate to pass at turn two and boxed at the end of the lap.
Russell and Stoll added to the catalogue of impressive moves around the outside at turn one as the duo overtook Kubica a lap apart.
Sebastian Vettel bought out the yellow flags on lap 37 as he lost the rear at turn three. Crucially, no damage was sustained to his Aston Martin, however, Bottas lost time due to the German’s spin
Hamilton boxed at the end of lap 39 to fit another set of medium tyres but emerged out onto the track with backmarkers to deal with. Verstappen again replied a lap later but fitted the hard compound and extended his gap to the Brit.
Mazepin became the first driver to retire from the race as he pitted on lap 43 due to a hydraulic issue.
Over the next six laps, Verstappen gradually increased the gap to Hamilton to just under four seconds. The Brit running second questioned his team as to why they pitted him early as he continued to fall behind Verstappen, only for him to set a new fastest lap soon after
Meanwhile, Tsunoda was reeled into his pit garage by his mechanics, becoming the second driver to retire from the race after a power-unit issue was discovered.
The gap between Verstappen and Hamilton continued to close as the Mercedes man looked to catch the Red Bull man. His impressive pace was interrupted by lapped cars which took the steam out of his speed.
Sergio Perez made another overtake as he stormed around the outside of Norris at turn two after the pair made contact on the exit of turn one.
At the end of lap 68, Bottas boxed from mediums to softs to try and consolidate a podium finish for the two Mercedes cars. A lap later, although being told to abort his fastest lap attempt by his team, Bottas set the race’s new fastest lap forcing Hamilton to box to try and reclaim the extra point which he ended up doing on the final lap.
In the end, it was the dominant Verstappen who took glory at Zandvoort, 24 seconds ahead of Hamilton and Bottas in second and third respectively.
Rounding out the top 10 finishers were Gasly, Leclerc, Alonso, Sainz, Perez, Ocon and Norris in 10th.
In the championship, Verstappen soars back to the summit of the standings with 224.5 points, three points ahead of Hamilton in second. Bottas’ podium finish sees him move up to third ahead of Norris and Perez, however, the Finn is close to 100 points behind his teammate.
Mercedes rise to the top of the constructors’ standings after their double-podium finish, however, Red Bull remain firmly in the fight just seven points behind.
What’s Next?
Formula 1 heads straight to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix in a week’s time where Hamilton will hope to fight straight back and regain control at the top of the championship standings.
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