GP Netherlands 2022

Max Verstappen wins on home soil as George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc round out the podium!

For the second time since 1985, the Dutch Grand Prix was held at Circuit Zandvoort. Well known for its close proximity to the coastline, it was a sea of orange that dominated the weekend in full support of their hometown hero, Max Verstappen, looking to secure his second straight win at the legendary track.

And he did just that. With a virtual safety car in place, Verstappen pitted to softs within the last 10 laps of the race. Leading the charge past Hamilton to take his 4th victory in a row and his 30th career win. Verstappen now holds a dominate lead in the Drivers Championship with 10 out of 15 races this season standing at the top of the podium.

“It was not a straightforward race. We had to push the whole race. Of course, with Safety Car, the Virtual Safety Car making the right calls, it was always a bit of question mark but it worked out really well once we got back to the soft tires, we had great pace again.”

“It’s always special to win your home Grand Prix, it was already last year. This year I have to say I had to work for it even more. So yeah, an incredible weekend and really happy we got the Dutch Grand Prix” Verstappen said.

Looking to echo Red Bull’s soft tire strategy, Russell requested to make the quick change as well. The decision proved to be critical for the Mercedes driver to secure P2, his best result to date in his career with F1.

Also taking advantage of switching to softs, and following closely behind, Charles Leclerc took P3 doing his best to minimize another weekend of errors for Ferrari.

Hamilton, who had remained on the track with medium tires during the safety car, quickly realized the ineffectiveness of the decision. Expressing his frustration over the radio as he saw his hopes of a podium dashed as a result, finishing with P4. Hamilton later explained his reaction.

“I was just on the edge of breaking point with my emotions. My apologies to the team”, Hamilton said. “I just lost it for a second. But I think they know that there is just so much passion.”

It was certainly a day plagued with problems for Carlos Sainz, who appeared to be struggling for pace early on. After a disastrous 10-second pit stop caused from a missing rear-left tire and a five-second penalty from an unsafe release from the pit box, Sainz’s P5 finish dropped to P8 as a result.

Following Sainz and taking P5 was Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

Beginning the race from P13, Fernando Alonso managed to overtake both AlphaTauri drivers Gasly and Tsunoda within 12 laps. Later taking advantage of an undercut on fellow teammate Esteban Ocon ending with a solid P6 result.

Mclaren’s Lando Norris was able to finish where he started, earning some much needed points  in P7.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon managed to squeeze into the top ten climbing 4 places to finish with P9.

With his strongest weekend of the season, Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten. Scoring a valuable point where he also saw himself qualify from on Saturday.

Landing just outside of the points was Pierre Gasly with P11, followed by Alexander Albon who managed to climb from P15 to finish in 12th.

Starting from P8 after a strong qualifying session, Mick Schumacher found himself playing catch up throughout the race as a result of slow pit stops. Unfortunately, the Haas driver was unable to fully recover landing in P13.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, finished in 14th after incurring a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags earlier in the race.

Kevin Magnussen managed P15 after an early battle with Alexander Albon that resulted in an oversteer and a kiss of the barriers.

Also receiving a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu took P16.

A difficult day for Mclaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who both qualified and finished P17, with Williams driver Nicholas Latifi following behind in P18.

Both Valtteri Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda were forced to retire their cars during the race.

With seven races left of the season, we head to the Italian Grand Prix and to Ferrari’s home track Monza!