Dutch Grand Prix – Race: Verstappen prophet in his own country!

Lewis and Max Verstappen on the front row: a title duel that continued in qualifying before the race. The orange stands provided an atmosphere of madness, in total devotion to the local of the stage and a true national hero in the Netherlands!

The smoke from the spectators even invaded the track, risking to disturb the pilots.

Race start.

Max Verstappen got the best start and immediately took a several length lead over Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Pierre Gasly held on to his fourth place against the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz.

The rest of the pack remained rather calm, except for a contact between Giovinazzi and Fernando Alonso at the start of the fast right turn. Esteban Ocon, in the first lap, found himself in 8th place behind his teammate Fernando Alonso at Alpine, following him closely.

Max Verstappen did not hesitate to escape the Mercedes threat, even going up to nearly 3 seconds ahead at the start of the 7th lap. The Dutchman is simply electrifying in front of his fans!

Pierre Gasly, firmly established in fourth place, found himself alone between the Mercedes and the Ferraris.

Sergio Pérez began his comeback with the fastest lap of the race in hand. The Mexican climbed up to 15th place from the 15th lap, before moving up to 14th position ahead of Yuki Tsunoda.

The race took on a calmer tone, with Lewis Hamilton seemingly unable to challenge Verstappen’s speed at home.

Lewis Hamilton started to accelerate on the tenth lap: 1:14:7.

21st lap: Hamilton and Verstappen pit!

The two leaders took turns stopping, Lewis Hamilton was able to gain a few tenths on his Dutch rival. The #44 set the fastest lap, in 1:13:7!

Valtteri Bottas temporarily took the lead of the race, but it is obvious that the Finn was not playing in the same league. The Mercedes #77 was certainly committed to blocking Verstappen.

Pierre Gasly stopped in the pits on the 25th lap to cover any traps from the Ferraris. The Frenchman dropped to 7th place.

Lewis Hamilton has in any case understood that it was time to go on the attack: the seven-time world champion has gradually closed the gap on his rival overall, to the tune of almost half a second per lap.

Valtteri Bottas was going to have the mission of making life difficult for Max Verstappen to allow Hamilton to pass!

Pierre Gasly, for his part, pulled off a superb overtake on Fernando Alonso at turn 1! The Frenchman moved up to 6th place on the 29th lap.

Verstappen has taken the advantage over Bottas, Hamilton has taken over his teammate to chase after #33! It was time for Bottas to stop, having no more tires.

No way to prevent Verstappen from gaining a little breathing room on Hamilton.

While Fernando Alonso is fitting his medium tires, George Russell has been given a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Too bad, the author of his first career podium was fighting for the 10th place point…

Sebastian Vettel made a mistake on the 37th lap in turn 3! He tried to overtake Robert Kubica on the inside and spun. Valtteri Bottas even had to go around him!

Behind, in 9th and 10th place, the two Alpines found themselves fighting it out, in the order Alonso-Ocon.

Lewis Hamilton stops again on lap 40! Mercedes challenges Red Bull to a duel while Hamilton heads out into traffic! Verstappen has followed suit and put on hard tires to make sure he can finish the Grand Prix. An interesting contrast, but Hamilton has lost a lot of time in traffic.

It’s Hamilton’s turn to use his more performant medium tires to try and trap Verstappen once again. Still thirty laps to go at this stage!

First retirement of the Grand Prix for Nikita Mazepin. Haas suffered a technical problem, forcing the Russian to step out.

Battle also between the two McLarens: Daniel Ricciardo has outperformed his teammate Lando Norris. The Australian reached 10th place, at the entrance of the points zone.

Lewis Hamilton seemed to understand, through his radio messages, that the victory would be lost. Verstappen was able to build a 4-second gap. The Briton even admitted that he would not have been able to go the distance with the medium tires.

Fernando Alonso regained 6th place from Sergio Pérez before the latter stopped. The Mexican got rid of George Russell for the gain of 11th place.

Second retirement from the Grand Prix, this time for Yuki Tsunoda. That was the end for the young Japanese driver on the 51st lap.

Last 20 tense laps.

Lewis Hamilton has accelerated the pace to come back not far from the DRS zone! The gap even dropped to 1 second 2 between the two men. Max Verstappen’s hard tires seem to be giving a bit of trouble to the Red Bull. It is very interesting for Hamilton to hurry while his tires still have performance.

With 15 laps remaining, the two contenders for the world title were not giving up! 1.8 seconds between them, and still total indecision for the award of this victory for the Dutch Grand Prix! However, Hamilton did lose some time.

Pierre Gasly managed to hold on to his impressive 4th place, still ahead of the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz! The latter saw Alonso’s Alpine approaching like a plane in his rearview mirrors.

Sergio Pérez joined Lando Norris in 9th place, Alonso got into the exhaust of his Spanish compatriot! Pérez was able to gain the advantage over McLaren #4 at turn 1, with a big contact between the two wheels. Risky move on the part of Lando Norris.

Strangely, Valtteri Bottas is stopped… to steal the fastest lap point from Lewis Hamilton? No, to give Lewis Hamilton a pit stop. Well, Bottas decided otherwise! Lewis Hamilton had to make an emergency stop to not lose this point. What a funny situation!

Victory for Verstappen!

It’s a real triumph for Max Verstappen in front of his fans at Zandvoort! The Dutch driver has taken back the lead of the championship by 3 points!

Our French drivers did well: Pierre Gasly finishes just outside the podium, and Esteban Ocon in 8th place.

The first three were the only ones to be in the same round!

See you next week in Monza, in the temple of speed, where the second sprint qualifying session will take place!