A sea of orange fans came to root for their home hero, Max Verstappen. And they got what they came for–to witness Verstappen win.
ZANDVOORT, The Netherlands—Verstappen won his second in a row, this time by a huge 20.9 seconds gap over Lewis Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas finished third. The win puts Verstappen back into first place by three points over Hamilton in the world championship.
Max Verstappen: Expectations were high going into the weekend. I’m so happy to win here and to take the lead as well in the championship. It’s just an amazing day with the whole crowd. Incredible. It’s definitely a very good day. Of course, Mercedes tried to make it difficult for us. We can be really pleased with the whole team’s performance.
Verstappen took the lead right from the start but dropped to no lower than second place before taking the lead for good following his first stop on lap 22. From there, Verstappen increased his lead after passing Bottas on lap 31, and Hamilton’s tire wear blunted his late efforts to overtake Verstappen.
In the quest to set the fastest lap of the race, both Hamilton and Bottas decided to pit just before the end of the race. However, after setting the fastest lap in the first two sectors, Bottas slowed down to allow Hamilton to pick up a championship point. But even then, Bottas still picked up the quickest time, only to have Hamilton pit as well, and then take the fastest lap.
Lewis Hamilton: I gave it absolutely everything today, I pushed flat out all race, but they were just too good. Max did an incredible job so a huge congratulations to him.
Bottas, who is fighting to retain his seat at Mercedes, had mixed feelings, “Unfortunately for me, it was pretty uneventful. We tried but didn’t quite have the pace today. Lewis got it (the point for the fastest lap), so, as a team, we got the points.”
As for the rest of the field, only two cars retired–Nikita Mazepin in the Haas F1 encountered hydraulic issues while, seven laps later, Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda lost power.
Tsunoda’s teammate, Pierre Gasly, had a very quiet but deserving Fourth place. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took fifth. Fernando Alonso battled fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr. late in the race to overtake the Ferrari driver and finish his Alpine in a deserving sixth position. Sergio Perez started his Red Bull from the back of the grid, but the Mexican fought his way up the field to take eighth. Esteban Ocon gave Alpine double points in ninth, while Lando Norris took tenth in the McLaren.
Next week’s competition–ending a stretch of three consecutive weekends–is scheduled for the Autodromo Nationale in Monza, Italy, where Pierre Gasly will defend his 2020 win at the Italian Grand Prix.
Note this major schedule change. Qualifying will be held on Friday following the first practice session. You can watch the practice session live on ESPNU beginning at 8:30a U.S. Eastern, followed by Qualifying at Noon U.S., Eastern on ESPN. On Saturday, practice session #2 will be held at 6a Eastern (televised by ESPN2), followed by Sprint Qualifying (also on ESPN2) at 10:30a.
Sunday’s race will be televised by ESPN2 starting at 9a. Sunny skies with temperatures in the 80s are forecast for race day.
