Max Verstappen wins Dutch Grand Prix from Lewis Hamilton to take lead in the title race
Max Verstappen WINS the Dutch Grand Prix after being roared to victory on home soil by a raucous crowd… with second-placed Lewis Hamilton slipping behind his fierce rival in race for the title
Max Verstappen took victory at his home race to take the championship lead Verstappen fended off the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri BottasMercedes told Bottas not to set the fastest lap but the Finnish driver did soThis forced Hamilton into a late pit stop to re-take the point for fastest lap Pierre Gasly, Charles LeClerc and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top sixVerstappen now has a three point lead over Hamilton in the fight for the title
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Usual thing. Lewis Hamilton wins, Mercedes are the greatest team ever. Lewis Hamilton loses, Mercedes are a heap of rubbish.
You can say this makes him the ferocious competitor he is, or you can call him a whinger. The verdict on that one is split, though both assessments have a ring of truth to them.
Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix – a fine, friendly, boisterous event – won by Max Verstappen to paroxysms of delight among his adoring home public was a case in point of the Briton’s relentless nature struggling to accept second place.
Max Verstappen took the championship lead by winning his home Grand Prix at Zandvoort
Lewis Hamilton did his best to keep up with Verstappen but did not have the pace to win
As it happened, he finished precisely there through a combination of Verstappen’s own unerring driving and the pace of his Red Bull being too extravagant for Mercedes to stop even though they tried to throw every sling and arrow of strategy at the opposition. Hamilton drove very well himself but ended the day with a three-point deficit in the championship, a swing of six.
Twice Mercedes tried to undercut the Dutchman, twice they failed. A sticky front right tyre on the first occasion did not help, but Hamilton was particularly furious that his second stop did not bring about the desired result. Cue the radio. ‘We called our bluff too soon,’ he complained, perhaps meaning they had played their hand too soon. ‘I had so much life left in that tyre. I don’t know why we rushed it.’
Actually, so far as I could see Mercedes delayed the call too long. Verstappen, who started on pole, was opening his lead to more than three seconds and showed no signs of abating. The advantage was slamming the window down on any chance of an undercut working.
Verstappen draped himself in the Dutch flag during the post-race podium ceremony
Verstappen won in front of a partisan Dutch crowd who roared when he crossed the line
Warned by his race engineer, Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington, that his new tyres might run out of life, Hamilton snapped back: ‘I am pushing to close this gap, man. Come on.’
He later added: ‘Today we needed everything to be perfect to have the slightest chance. Pit stops needed to be on point, strategy needed to be on point, and (release into) traffic, too. But none of those three was ideal.’
Hamilton was not entirely wrong in criticising Mercedes, mind. Competition is revealing cracks in even their polished operation.
Rosberg, champion with the team in 2016, was withering, said: ‘Today it was Max’s race but it could have been a closer fight. The way they did it there was just no chance. It was a bit strange to see.
Verstappen kept the lead at the start of the race and battled hard to keep his lead throughout
Valtteri Bottas briefly took the lead after making one less stop but finished well back in third
‘They have had a couple of shaky moments recently. It’s not been their usual high level of strategy so something has gone on.
‘I think this evening there will be some big discussions. Lewis gave a low blow saying, “I don’t know what they were thinking”.
Rosberg added: ‘What I also found really bad today were the comments from Bono to Lewis. They were so garbled and not clear.
‘That as a driver frustrated me like hell, because I am like, “Come on, we are out there, we don’t know what is going on. Give us clear guidance – push now or take it a little easy”. That was below par from Bono today.’
Hamilton, it should be noted, was gracious and generous towards Verstappen, acknowledging that his adversary had performed superbly under huge pressure.
The victory was Verstappen’s seventh of the season and he has a three point lead
The 23-year-old’s fame was the reason the race returned to Holland after 36 years and here 70,000 of his exuberant fans were letting off their orange flares, waving flags and cheering him loudly. Even his monarch, King Willem-Alexander was in attendance.
Verstappen’s drew the biggest in-race cheer of the afternoon when he passed Valtteri Bottas after his own first stop had left him behind the Finn, who was staying out in an attempt to jam the Red Bull man in a Mercedes sandwich.
On the plus side for Hamilton, he scored a point for setting the fastest lap on the very last lap but not before his usually obedient pal Bottas, who finished third, had ignored pleas to slow down so as not to beat the champion’s existing race-best time.
Mercedes told Bottas not to set fastest lap but the Finnish driver did forcing Hamilton to pit to re-take the point for the fastest lap
The weekend was splendid for Formula One a week on from the farce of Spa’s ‘race that never was’. This was so well-organised and throbbing with fun, even though overtaking opportunities were limited on the narrow, banked track.
The anticipated hostility towards Hamilton barely rose beyond pantomime level, and he charmed the fans by telling them how much he enjoyed being in Holland and loved the track and appreciated them.
Only the result hurt.
Sportsmail’s KIERAN LYNCH provided live Formula One coverage of the Dutch Grand Prix, including build-up, race updates and result.
