Dutch GP: Verstappen beats Mercedes to win home race

Max Verstappen won his home race, the Dutch GP, for the second year in a row to further extend his title lead. What looked like a straightforward win for the Red Bull Racing driver came under threat as mixed strategies and a Safety Car brought Mercedes into contention as well.

While Lewis Hamilton was left fuming with his P4 finish, his teammate George Russell finished second. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the podium.

• Verstappen extends title lead to 109 points
• Sainz given penalty for unsafe release

Hamilton loses shot at victory

Verstappen pulled off a clean start from pole position to fend off Leclerc and hold on to the lead. But Mercedes had a trick up their sleeves – while most of the frontrunners started on softs, they started on mediums, allowing them to go for a one-stop strategy.

Of course, that didn’t go to plan as a Virtual Safety Car brought out by Yuki Tsunoda’s stoppage gave Verstappen the perfect chance to pit and still rejoin the track ahead of the two Mercedes drivers. Mercedes decided to make most of the situation and pitted both Hamilton and Russell for fresh mediums as well.

Mercedes would get another shot, though. Valtteri Bottas’ retirement brought out the Safety Car and while Verstappen pitted for softs, Hamilton stayed out on mediums to take the lead. Russell followed Verstappen and pitted for softs as well, prompting Hamilton to admit that it would be “hard to keep that car [referring to Verstappen] behind”.

Verstappen pulled off the perfect restart and zoomed past Hamilton to once again take the lead. Hamilton was left struggling on his older tyres and was passed by both Russell and Leclerc. Expletive-laden radio messages made his discontent with Mercedes’ strategy apparent.

Verstappen wins on home soil

Verstappen ended up winning in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. “It was not a straightforward race. We had to push the whole race,” he admitted. “With the 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 tyres, 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.”

Russell was four seconds behind him in second place. Leclerc completed the podium, but this perhaps wasn’t the result he was hoping for given the staggering gap between him and Verstappen in the championship.

Tough race for Sainz

Sainz’ race went from bad to worse. He lost a chunk of time during his first pit stop (lasting 12.5 seconds) because Ferrari didn’t have the rear-left tyre ready as he entered his box. Another pit stop during the Safety Car resulted in him being handed a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release in front of Fernando Alonso.

He finished fifth on track, but the penalty dropped him to eighth in the final classification. This promoted Sergio Perez to fifth, followed by Alonso and Lando Norris. Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll wrapped up the top 10.

2022 F1 championship standings

The Dutch GP is Verstappen’s 10th win this season. Leclerc moves ahead of Perez to once again sit second overall, but he’s a massive 109 points behind with seven more races to go – that’s a points margin of over four race wins.

The Italian GP is up next on September 11.

2022 Dutch GP results

Also see:

Verstappen wins Belgian GP, charging from 14^th on grid