Verstappen wins his first home race with victory in the Dutch Grand Prix
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Max Verstappen has won his first-ever home Dutch Grand Prix and has regained the World Championship lead. His rival for the F1 title finished second after attempting various strategic moves but unsuccessfully. His Mercedes teammate played a supportive role in the race and finished on the podium, though he went against the wish of Mercedes by trying to steal the fastest lap point from Hamilton. Sergio Perez did well to work his way through the field to score points.
In front of the orange army, Verstappen put in a strong and mature performance which saw him react to every single move made by Hamilton in the pitlane. He aced the start and created a gap after just two corners. He wasn't able to pull away as far as he did in Austria, but it was always looking like a comfortable victory.
The rest of the grid remained relatively unchanged. The banking and spectacular scenery provided plenty of entertainment over the weekend, but as predicted, the race on the Zandvoort circuit featured extremely few overtakes and on-track duels. Pierre Gasly completed a strong drive to stay in fourth place, and the two Ferrari cars made big gains on McLaren in the World Championship. Lando Norris and Perez had an interesting battle in the final few laps which saw Perez come out on top for ninth place.
On The Grid
Verstappen and Hamilton shared the front row of the grid for the first time since their famous incident at Silverstone. Verstappen had both Mercedes cars breathing down his neck, whilst Sergio Perez had to start from the pitlane after the Mexican received a new Honda engine following a poor qualifying result. Perez was joined by Nicholas Latifi who had to change his gearbox following a crash on Saturday. Pierre Gasly rounded out the top four and was followed by both Ferraris. Antonio Giovinazzi recorded a career-best start at seventh.
Verstappen comfortably beat Hamilton into the first corner and generated a 1.7 second lead on the opening lap. After a series of purple lap times, Hamilton was facing a 2.3-second gap and relying on a strategic masterclass from the Mercedes pit crew with extremely limited overtaking opportunities at Zandvoort. With limited consecutive running in the three practice sessions, there was some uncertainty regarding how long the tyres would last.
Into the pits
After just 11 laps, Hamilton already thought about switching to a two-stop. Perez started to make his way through the field but had a major lock-up at turn one and Red Bull pitted the Mexican because of the strong vibrations. By lap 20, Hamilton had created a big enough gap to stay ahead of Gasly in fourth and therefore pitted for the medium tyres on lap 21. Red Bull reacted to cover off Hamilton with Verstappen.
Within 10 laps, the two title rivals caught up with race leader Bottas. Bottas stayed out and kept the Dutchman behind for two laps. Verstappen got back into the lead on lap 31, but Hamilton had managed to cut the gap down to around one second.
On lap 40, Mercedes rolled the dice and pitted early. But Hamilton came out into traffic so couldn't push as hard as he would've liked. The Red Bull driver covered it off. The only point of difference came in the type of tyres. Verstappen had hards, and Hamilton used his extra set of mediums. With the Brit unable to close down a three-second gap, he was asking the team why they pitted him so early.
Hamilton continued to push hard and set purple sector times on numerous occasions. But Verstappen more or less equally matched his rival. The gap reduced to just over one second, but Hamilton was helped with traffic. Once traffic was clear, Verstappen increased the gap to four second and drove to victory.
At the end of the race, Bottas stole the fastest lap off Hamilton. The Brit subsequently pitted to regain it.