2022 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Results & aftermath

Verstappen holds off surprise Mercedes threat, excels to win incident-filled Dutch GP; Russell surges to P2, Hamilton falls to P4 after Safety Cars upend strategy; Leclerc salvages P3 for fading Ferrari

Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix was a wild and unpredictable affair with as many plot twists as a Raymond Chandler novel. But the ending of this crazy story from the Netherlands still circled back to the place it so often has this Formula1 season —  yet another resounding victory for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. With the throngs of his orange-clad countrymen in the stands expecting a virtual coronation for the pole-sitting points leader, the race turned out to be anything but a procedural, as once mighty Mercedes showed excellent pace and, for a while at least, quite a bit of cleverness at the short and twisty beachfront Zandvoort Circuit. For a time it looked like the Silver Arrows’ seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton might be on for his first win of the season, as the team rode a theoretical one-stop pit strategy to try and elevate Hamilton into the lead and put Verstappen and Red Bull on the back foot. But in the end, as so often happens in F1, the uneven playing field of cheap pit stops under Virtual Safety Car and Safety Car conditions doomed the ostensible leader of the race, who invariably tries to maintain his track position by doing nothing while those chasing him get the benefit of a stop for fresh rubber under full-course yellow flag conditions. Hamilton was victimized by this quirk not once but twice on the day, and it cost him a legitimate shot at hard-to-come by victory and even a podium when all was said and done. Conversely, Verstappen once again got all the breaks as he earned his tenth win of 2022, aiming his sights not only on a second consecutive championship but also potentially setting the record for most victories in an F1 season. That single season record currently stands at 13 wins, held jointly by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. But it’s not outside the realm of possibility that, with his current run of form and seven more rounds remaining, the Dutch master might just eclipse that by season’s end.

The keys to Mercedes’ potential upset aspirations began when they chose to run both Hamilton (starting in P4) and George Russell (starting P6) on Medium Pierreli tires to begin the race, while pole-sitting Verstappen, teammate Sergio Perez in P5 and the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc (P3) and Carlos Sainz (P3) all started on the less durable Soft tires. While Russell lost a position to McLaren’s Lando Norris on the opening lap, he regained it by Lap 5 and so the top 6 held station until the first round of pit stops would be attempted. The strategic wheels began to really turn when the Alpine of Fernando Alonso pitted on Lap 10 to doff his Soft tires for new Hard compound tires. Alonso’s subsequent solid lap times convinced Mercedes that they could extend their first stint on Mediums and then swap to the Hards for the remainder of the race, thus obviating the need for the second pit stop that the other runners would almost certainly have to make since they would be pitting much earlier on their degraded Softs. And that’s how it began to play out. First, Ferrari’s Sainz came in on Lap 15 for what wound up being an awful stop for the Spaniard, as the team did not seem ready for him and he sat for an interminable 12.7 seconds waiting for service. (Worse still, the team left one of their their tire change guns in the path of Sergio Perez, who was just exiting after his own stop and promptly ran over it.)

With his Scuderai stablemate demoted down the order to P11 after the slow stop, Leclerc dove in on Lap 17 and his stop for Mediums was a flawless 2.5 seconds. Verstappen followed suit two laps after, which elevated the Mercedes duo of Hamilton to the lead and  Russell to P2 when Verstappen emerged in third. Now the game was on and Mercedes had both the lead and the strategic advantage… or so it seemed at the time. Hamilton ran his first stint all the way to Lap 30, doffing his used Mediums for new Hard tires and returning to the track in P5. Russell came in for the same switch on Lap 32 and then found himself in P5, as Hamilton had made up a position in the interim and was now hounding the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez. Perez made his car as wide as he could for as long as he could but had to give in to the quicker Merc, with Hamilton executing the overtake on Lap 37. Crucially, however, Hamilton’s forward progress was significantly balked by the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel, who inexplicably came out of the pits right in front of Hamilton and into his racing line going into Turn 1. Vettel would later be assessed a 5-second penalty for ignoring blue flags but it was an omen that things were about go sideways for Lewis and his quest for that elusive first 2022 win.

Things really got weird on Lap 44 when AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda stopped on the side of the track stating that he felt one of his wheels was not on correctly. The team disagreed, calling on the young Japanese driver to limp back to the pits, which he did successfully, thereby keeping the track green. The AlphaTauri mechanics then not only changed his tires again but spent an interminable amount of time fiddling with his seatbelts, which Tsunoda had presumably loosened when he thought he might retire by the side of the road. After all that, and with zero chance remaining of a competitive finish, AlphaTauri still sent Tsunoda back into the race, where he promptly broke down again on the side of the road on Lap 47 of this 72-lap contest. That brought out a Virtual Safety Car and changed Hamilton and Verstappen’s luck completely around. Verstappen was able to dive into the pits on the following lap and get rid of his knackered Mediums for a fresh set of Hards, while Hamilton dove in on Lap 49 for a switch back to what he hoped might be the better performing Mediums. But the VSC stop by Verstappen had neutralized Hamilton’s tire advantage and ruined the potential of the one-stopper to leapfrog Verstappen in the pits. The Red Bull man maintained his lead but under VSC conditions it ballooned from a few seconds to more than 12-seconds over P2 Hamilton. But worse was yet to come for the seven-time champ.

Hamilton’s former teammate Valtteri Bottas brought out the full Safety Car on Lap 56 when his Alfa Romeo lost power and had to be retrieved from a dangerous position on the start-finish straight. With the Safety Car leading the field through the pits while the Alfa was rescued, Verstappen again made a tire swap, this time for fresh Softs. Mercedes split their strategy, keeping Hamilton, who now inherited the lead, on his older Mediums, while acquiescing to Russell’s desire for fresh Softs to finish out the race. Leclerc also opted to make the switch to new Softs and so, while Hamilton would lead the race when the Safety Car ended, he would be a sitting duck on old Mediums while Verstappen, Russell and Leclerc were all on the better performing fresh Softs behind him. As the Safety Car ducked into the pits at the end of Lap 60 it didn’t take long for Verstsappen to pounce — he easily nabbed the top spot away from Lewis with a decisive pass right at the timing line of the front straight. While Verstappen ran away to a lead he was never again to relinquish, Hamilton was easy meat, first for his teammate Russell and then for Leclerc’s blood red Ferrari. An irate Hamilton could do nothing but curse his team and his fate as he went from potential victor to not even on the podium in P4. Russell maintained his excellent P2 and Leclerc salvaged little something for Ferrari and his waning title hopes in P3 (Sainz would be relegated to P8 after yet another pit lane fiasco led to a 5-second penalty for an unsafe release on that final frantic round of stops). But for Verstappen it was the sweet taste of not only a lucky victory but a victory in front of his adoring home fans, who sensed what everyone in Formula 1 seems to now: that another world title is looking like a fait accompli

Top 10 finishers of the Dutch GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
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

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is again in but a week’s time — the Italian Grand Prix from the Temple of Speed, Monza. With the races coming fast and thick as we barrel towards the end of the season, his competitors have little time to adjust to Verstappen’s continued dominance. Hope o see you then to find out how it all shakes out!