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Max Verstappen wins at Zandvoort in front of Dutch home fans

Max Verstappen delighted the hundred-thousand Dutch fans at Zandvoort after winning from pole at Zandvoort. But it was far from an easy cruise to victory, as strategy decisions more than made up for difficulties with passing at the track.

Two late virtual safety cars mixed up the strategies with Mercedes back in the mix, and Verstappen started second on the final restart. He quickly dispatched Lewis Hamilton and held up Mercedes teammate George Russell to take the win.

“It was not a straightforward race,” Verstappen said. “We had to push the whole race. Of course, with the Safety Car, Virtual Safety Car making the right calls, it was always a bit of question mark but it worked out really well.”

“It’s always special to win your home Grand Prix,” he added, “it was already last year. This year I have to say I had to work for it even more. So yeah, an incredible weekend and really happy we got the Dutch Grand Prix.”

Mercedes driver George Russell managed second, choosing to pit behind Verstappen instead of remaining behind his teammate.

“As a team today we showed incredible pace, this gives us a lot of confidence moving forward. We are slowly getting closer to that top step, so let’s keep pushing,” said Russell.

His Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton was none too happy with that decision though, hoping Mercedes would have left Russell out as a buffer. He said he felt like he should have won the race and ended up finishing fourth, off the podium.

“Every single day of my life, I’d rather risk everything for winning the race rather than cementing second and third,” Hamilton complained over team radio.

“Sorry it didn’t work out, we took a risk and it didn’t work out,” Hamilton’s strategist James Vowles said. “Let’s discuss it in the office.”

Charles Leclerc’s third place moves him up the points standings, but Verstappen gains an even greater advantage. Leclerc now ties Perez for second place in the points, 109 points behind Verstappen.

“We were a little unlucky with the VSC, I don’t know if it would have changed anything but Max was too quick today,” said Leclerc. “Lewis was struggling on a used set [of tires] so we managed to overtake him, it wasn’t easy but we made it stick.”

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 72 1:36:42.773 26
2 63 George Russell MERCEDES 72 +4.071s 18
3 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 72 +10.929s 15
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 72 +13.016s 12
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 72 +18.168s 10
6 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 72 +18.754s 8
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 72 +19.306s 6
8 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 72 +20.916s 4
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 72 +21.117s 2
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 72 +22.459s 1
11 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI RBPT 72 +27.009s 0
12 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 72 +30.390s 0
13 47 Mick Schumacher HAAS FERRARI 72 +32.995s 0
14 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 72 +36.007s 0
15 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 72 +36.869s 0
16 24 Zhou Guanyu ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 72 +37.320s 0
17 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 72 +37.764s 0
18 6 Nicholas Latifi WILLIAMS MERCEDES 71 +1 lap 0
NC 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 53 DNF 0
NC 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI RBPT 43 DNF 0
Owen Johnson
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