Red Bull’s Max Verstappen absorbed the pressure from both Mercedes cars and won his first Grand Prix in front of the Dutch “Orange army ”. Verstappen took his seventh win of the season from pole, producing a magnificently controlled performance at the whirlwind Zandvoort circuit.
A delightful display of fireworks and an orange haze greeted Verstappen as he crossed the line 20 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton and teammate Valterri Bottas, who finished second and third. The lead Red Bull driver now leads the Drivers’ Championship standings with 224.5 points to Hamilton’s 221.5 though – interestingly – Mercedes leads the constructors’ Championship on 344.5 points.
Mercedes searched the depths of their arsenal to find an answer from Verstappen, yet the Dutch driver soaked up the pressure and delivered. Much to the delight of the home crowd. The orange flares and fireworks rumbled through the grand stands as Verstappen passed the start-finish after 72 well-managed laps.
“He [Verstappen] was really fast today,” Hamilton said,“Congratulations to him.
“I gave it absolutely everything today, flat-out. I pushed as hard as I could, but they were just too quick for us.”
Mercedes softened the blow, by order of a late pit stop for Hamilton, rescuing the single point for fastest lap. Valterri Bottas delivered a calm race, extending the life of his tyres when required in an attempt to maximize the position ahead of Verstappen.
As the lights went out, every driver got away without issue. Alonso in particular passed Antonio Giovinazzi, who started in 7th, and teammate Esteban Ocon. Giovinazzi in 10th at the conclusion of the first lap.
Hamilton entered the pits in lap 21 – with Red Bull making the decision to safely cover the overcut – Verstappen switching to mediums the next available opportunity to protect the attempted undercut.
Bottas was eventually passed by Verstappen on lap 28 at the start of the start-finish straight, with Hamilton passing Bottas two corners later. Hamilton however, would soon fall out of DRS range of Verstappen as the Dutch driver pulled an entire second ahead.
Mercedes created an opportunity to pit again for fresher tyres on lap 39, which Mercedes hastily lept on. Hamilton was released on the pit lane into traffic, just nipping Lance Stroll on the pit exit stuck behind the dirty air of Daniel Ricciardo. Hamilton would remain behind Ricciardo until the next opportunity for the Australian to move over – costing Hamilton precious seconds. The pit stop did not seem to give Mercedes any advantage as Verstappen had gotten his tyres into an optimized performance range.
Picture: Twitter/RedBullRacing
Hamilton got within 1.5s of Verstappen Red Bull but could not sustain that pace for the remainder of the race. Bottas pitted on lap 68 – pushing on to claim fastest lap. Bottas was only to be disappointed to be told by his race engineer to abort his attempt as Hamilton was attempting to salvage his disappointing day.
Pierre Gasly produced AlphaTauri’s second-best result of the season, comfortably steering his way to fourth.
“P4 is an amazing result today, I don’t think we could really hope for much better and it’s 12 important points for us. I really enjoyed all 72 laps here in Zandvoort, it;s a fantastic track. Gasly concluded.
Gasly’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda was one of two retirees – jacking up the car on lap 51 after a bad power unit data alert.
Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished fifth and seventh respectively. Moving the prancing horse’s into 3rd in the constructor battle, ahead of McLaren who experienced a mixed bag of results. Sainz, after a solid start, struggled for pace throughout the race jousting with Alonso at the end for P6.
Alonso got past Sainz for P6 in the penultimate lap, as the crowd went into a frenzy for race-winner Verstappen. Alonso remarked after the race that the “orange fog” gave it away.
Lando Norris fought well to rescue a points finish – finishing 10th – after an early qualifying exit. Daniel Ricciardo struggled for race pace, receiving team orders to let Norris pass him as he was comparatively quicker on pace.
Sergio Perez sparred with Norris for P8, making his way from the pit lane to score four points after a tough weekend. Esteban Ocon rallied his way to 9th – the only difficult moment for the Frenchman coming seconds after the start – getting too close to his teammate at turn 2.
The Aston Martin pair Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel endured a difficult 72 laps, both drivers finishing outside the points in 12th and 13th respectively. Starting from 17th, 15th after a set of grid penalties, Vettel had a messy race from turn 1 and beyond. The four-time world champion, despite a challenging Dutch GP, leads the 2021 season with the most overtakes.
Stroll got off the line without error and found himself trailing Williams driver George Russel for what seemed an eternity. The Zandvoort circuit was synonymous with being notoriously difficult with overtaking – Stroll experiencing the “Saturday circuit” effects at the GP.
