Tag Archives: Zandvoort

2024 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Results & aftermath

Norris recovers from poor start to hammer Verstappen on home turf; Leclerc holds off Piastri for P3

In the halcyon days of Red Bull’s dominance, a bobble like the one McLaren’s pole-sitting Lando Norris made to start Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix would have relegated the young Briton to a second place start once Max Verstappen pounced to take the lead amidst the rolling dunes of Zandvoort. But such are the strides that McLaren and their young duo of drivers have made that Norris not only kept his cool after ceding the lead but then set himself to relentlessly closing down the race leading Red Bull in rather astonishingly rapid fashion. Proving that the pace advantage in Formula 1 no longer rests with Red Bull, McLaren’s main man hunted down Verstappen and re-passed the Dutchman in front of his home crowd with relative ease on Lap 18 of this 72-lap contest. Norris almost immediately scampered away out of DRS range and built enough of an advantage to withstand Verstappen’s attempt at an undercut on Lap 27, emerging from his only out stop of the race a lap later just under five-seconds ahead of the Flying Dutchman. After that, it was clear that the McLaren in Norris’s hands had the legs on Verstappen’s Red Bull, and Norris never faced a real challenge for the rest of the race. He subsequently earned his second F1 victory and second this season after breaking his duck in Miami, taking the checkered flag nearly 23-seconds ahead of the Red Bull runner-up.

Ferrari’s Chalres Leclerc exceeded expectations by making a very good getaway of his own to start the race and then undercutting the field on Lap 25 to get track position on the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri and the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez. Lecerc was then able to hold off Piastri in the final stanza of the race to claim P3 and earn the last step on the podium. But with Piastri still coming home a solid P4 while Perez drifted to a rather desultory P6 finish, and combined with Norris’s maximum 26-points haul for not only winning but setting the fastest lap of the day, McLaren closed ground on Red Bull in the all-important Constructors’ Standings to the tune of a mere thirty-point deficit. Norris also sliced into Verstappen’s lead in the Drivers’ points, closing to within seventy with nine races remaining on the calendar. In a twist few would have predicted after the opening rounds of the 2024 season, Red Bull are now the ones chasing McLaren and hoping they can do just enough to hold off the papaya orange menace filling up their rearview mirrors in both title hunts.

Leclerc’s Scuderia teammate Carlos Sainz did well to come home ahead of Perez in P5 after being hampered by limited running in practice and starting down in P10. Mercedes had a step back here after their strong run of results heading into the summer break, leaving the team scratching their heads over their relative lack of pace that saw George Russell only finish P7 after starting from fourth on the grid. Teammate Lewis Hamilton at least recovered somewhat from his lowly P14 starting position and came home in P8, cold if any comfort for driver and team. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly had another solid drive to take valuable points in P9 and Fernando Alonso was the lone Aston Martin to score in P10.

Top 10 finishers of the Dutch GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

LAPS

TIME/RETIRED

PTS

1

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

72

1:30:45.519

26

2

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

72

+22.896s

18

3

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

72

+25.439s

15

4

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

72

+27.337s

12

5

55

Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

72

+32.137s

10

6

11

Sergio Perez

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

72

+39.542s

8

7

63

George Russell

Mercedes

72

+44.617s

6

8

44

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

72

+49.599s

4

9

10

Pierre Gasly

Alpine Renault

71

+1 lap

2

10

14

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes

71

+1 lap

1

Complete race results available via Formula.com.

The next tilt is in but a week’s time — the Italian Grand Prix from the Temple of Speed, Monza. While Ferrari would dearly like to take the honors for that race weekend, it’s now looking like a two team race between Red Bull and surging McLaren. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out on the fastest circuit in Formula 1!

2024 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Qualifying results

Norris claims authoritative pole over Verstappen at Zandvoort as F1 kicks back into gear; Piastri P3, Russell P4

Formula 1’s long summer break has come and gone, as the circus reopened for Round 15 of the 2024 World Championship at the small but technical Zadvoort Circuit amidst the dunes along the coast of the Netherlands. After nothing but wet practices on Friday and Saturday morning, Qualifying itself was dry and the cars finally got to show their speed. Looking tan, ready and rested, McLaren’s Lando Norris continued his run of good form by laying down a dominant lap to earn pole position during Qualifying for tomorrow’s Dutch Grand Prix, some four-tenths to the good of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the current points leader in the Drivers standings. Despite the throngs of orange-clad countrymen willing on the Dutch master from the stands, it was the papaya orange of Norris’s McLaren setting the pace when push came to shove. Adding to McLaren’s satisfaction, Oscar Piastri set the third fastest time, while Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez could only muster P5. Mercedes’ George Russell split those two and will line up alongside Piastri on the second row after claiming P4. But Silver Arrows teammate Lewis Hamilton, winner of two of the last three races prior to the break, had a bit of a disastrous day. First, the seven-time champion was bounced in Q2 after only being twelfth fastest in that session; then he was assessed a three-place grid penalty after being found guilty of impeding Perez in Q1. On a circuit where track position is king, Hamilton will really have to pull something out of the bag come race day now starting from a lowly fourteenth.

Charles Leclerc was the only Ferrari to make it into Q3 and will start P6 on Sunday, as teammate Carlos Sainz struggled with handling en route to an initial P11 grid spot. But Williams’ Alexander Albon, who had been looking good with the eighth fastest time at the end of quali, was DQ’d after the session due to a technical infraction on the floor of his car. That elevated not only Sainz into the top ten, but also promoted Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll to P8 on the grid, alongside his P7 teammate Fernando Alonso, and lifted Alpine’s Pierre Gasly up to P9.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Dutch GP:

POS

NO

DRIVER

CAR

Q1

Q2

Q3

LAPS

1

4

Lando Norris

McLaren Mercedes

1:11.377

1:10.496

1:09.673

14

2

1

Max Verstappen

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:11.393

1:10.811

1:10.029

14

3

81

Oscar Piastri

McLaren Mercedes

1:11.541

1:10.505

1:10.172

16

4

63

George Russell

Mercedes

1:11.049

1:10.552

1:10.244

18

5

11

Sergio Perez

Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT

1:11.006

1:10.678

1:10.416

17

6

16

Charles Leclerc

Ferrari

1:11.370

1:10.689

1:10.582

24

7

14

Fernando Alonso

Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes

1:11.493

1:10.845

1:10.633

16

DQ

23

Alexander Albon

Williams Mercedes

0

8

18

Lance Stroll

Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes

1:11.518

1:10.661

1:10.857

19

9

10

Pierre Gasly

Alpine Renault

1:11.718

1:10.815

1:10.977

20

10

55

Carlos Sainz

Ferrari

1:11.327

1:10.914

18

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Revised grid taking into account multiple penalties is here.

Tomorrow’s race amidst the dunes airs live on ESPN tomorrow starting at 9 am Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out of Norris can hold off Verstappen for another win and tighten up the championships even further and we fly into the second half of the season!

2023 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Results & aftermath

Verstappen prevails for record-tying ninth win on the trot in chaotic, rain-affected Dutch Grand Prix; Alonso returns to podium with masterful P2; superb Gasly promoted to P3 due to Perez penalty

Even the unpredictable elements at the Dutch seaside Zandvoort circuit could not prevent the great Max Verstappen from adding to his record-setting victory pace at his hometown race. With rain chucking it down at the very start of Sunday’s 72-lap Dutch Grand Prix and then again during the closing stanza, forcing split second strategy decisions up and down the pit wall, Verstappen and his Red Bull brain trust made all the right calls en route to another dominant victory. It was the points leader’s record trying ninth win in a row, drawing him level with the great Sebastian Vettel, who first lifted this team named after a sports drink to the pinnacle of motorsport. Proving himself a worthy successor to the German four time champ, the Dutch wunderkind wowed the virtual sea of his sodden and ecstatic orange-clad fans by surviving the opening two laps on slicks as the rain began and then two Safety Car periods that erased his cushion. The latter deluge began on Lap 61, leading to first a VSC three laps later and then a Red Flag due to cars aquaplaning off the track en masse. Nevertheless, the Dutch master held off the late charge of wily old Fernando Alonso and pulled out his winning margin over the final five green flag laps to 3.744-seconds over the Spaniard. That also made it eleven wins from thirteen races run in 2023 and increased his points lead over teammate Sergio Perez to a whopping 128. While Verstappen’s dominance may make for sometimes less than thrilling and lopsided victories, this race had excitement galore due to the changeable weather and abundance of incident. In any event, one has to give the devil his due in saying that Verstappen is head and shoulders above all the other contenders in what is shaping up to be one of the legendary individual seasons in the sport’s history.

Nearly as good was Aston Martin’s Alonso, who started from P5 but used his mastery of touch and feel in the wet to consistently push to the front whatever the track conditions. By Lap 13 and after a switch to Intermediate wets and then back to Soft Pirellis, Alonso had worked his way to P3, a position he looked destined to be locked into for the duration. But he got a huge break when the heavy showers hit and the field were once again forced to come in for wet weather tires. The P2 Red Bull of Perez dove to the pits for Inters on Lap 61, which looked like the shrewd move at the time. The pursuing Alonso came in a lap latter for the same compound but the rain only intensified from there and the Red Bull team pulled first Verstappen in for the full Wet tires on Lap 63 and then, after Perez had slid off the track in T1, they called him in for the same on Lap 64. But with a big shunt by Alfa Romeo’s Zho Guanyu directly after Perez had his own off, the race director first deployed a Virtual Safety Car but then determined that the only safe course of action was a Red Flag. That trapped Perez in the pits as the rest of the field trundled round to get back into them for safe retrieval of Zho’s Alfa and barrier repair. While Perez was allowed to keep P3 and not relegated any further, as that was his last timed position, he had lost out to Alonso on P2. Making matters worse for the Mexican, he somehow accrued a pit speed violation on that fateful pit entry and was slapped with a 5-second time penalty. Alonso easily held off Perez, as he made a hard if eventually futile charge at catching Verstappen at the point. Meanwhile, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who drove a superb race, kept himself close enough to the second Red Bull to inherit the last step on the podium when Perez was docked those five-seconds after the checkers flew. It was brace of brilliant drives and results by Alonso and Gasly and another difficult day at the office for Perez when all was said and done.

Carlos Sainz was the lone Ferrari to make it home after teammate Charles Leclerc DNF’d due to floor damage on Lap 42. While Sainz held on for P5, it was another confused and disappointing day for the Scuderia, with Leclerc’s pointless retirement preceded by a botched stop for Inters on Lap 2. The Monegasque driver made his own call to box but the team weren’t ready for him with the tires, making for an agonizingly long time spent stationary. Heading into Monza next week, Ferrari will be under immense pressure to do better in front of their rabid tifosi. Mercedes Lewis Hamilton was likewise his team’s lone representative in the Top 10, recovering from a poor qualifying and a P13 start to take a hard earned P6. Teammate George Russell’s day came to grief late in the race when he suffered a puncture dicing with McLaren’s Lando Norris on lap 67 and was forced into an emergency pit stop that pushed him back to P17 and last among the remaining runners. Norris survived that incident to come home P7, with teammate Oscar Piastri not quite as quick in P9. Williams’ Alexander Albon did an excellent job after running his opening stint on Soft tires all the way to Lap 44 despite the drenched circuit, a crazy feat that set him up for his eventual P8 finish. The second Alpine of Esteban Ocon took the last point in P10 after the team’s gamble to be the first to go on full Wet tires on Lap 62 didn’t quite pay off due to the Red Flag.

Top 10 finishers of the Dutch GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 72 2:24:04.411 25
2 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 72 +3.744s 19
3 10 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 72 +7.058s 15
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 72 +10.068s 12
5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 72 +12.541s 10
6 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 72 +13.209s 8
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 72 +13.232s 6
8 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 72 +15.155s 4
9 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 72 +16.580s 2
10 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 72 +18.346s 1

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time as we head into September — the Italian Grand Prix from Monza, the Temple of Speed. Verstappen will be gunning for the record for consecutive race wins and the rest of the contenders will be hoping that somehow the ultra-fast circuit suits their hot rods a little better. And, at their home circuit, Ferrari will simply be praying for both of their cars to perform well and with no embarrassing mistakes for the Italian media to harp on. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!

2023 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Qualifying results

Verstappen returns from break on form, earns dominant pole in tricky conditions at Zandvoort; Norris P2, Russell P3 amidst damp-to-dry conditions, two Red Flags in Q3

After a month off for the traditional summer break, Formula 1 returned to action and the buildup to Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix amidst the dunes at Zandvoort. But the time off added no rust to Max Verstappen’s sterling form this season and the Red Bull driver pulled out yet another pole during Saturday qualifying for his home race. With rain earlier in the day leading to a wet track that was slowly dried by the clearing & sunny conditions at this beachside circuit, the drivers were forced to contend with the always entertaining and fraught wet-to-dry scenario, where a very thin dry line would make it possible to run slick Pirellis during the final quali session. Though no one dared doff the Intermediates for the first two rounds of qualifying, the remaining ten contenders all ran the Softs for their final fast laps. But once again it was Verstappen who mastered the track and the tricky conditions the best, laying down a blazingly fast 1:10.567 lap on his final attempt. That put the Dutch master some six-tenths to the good of the very game McLaren of Lando Norris and the two will start side by side at the front of the grid for tomorrow’s race. It was Verstappen’s astonishing eighth pole out of thirteen race weekends so far in 2023.

With the fastest laps of the day being the final ones attempted due to the continually drying track, Mercedes George Russell maximized his last try to take an impressive P3. His teammate Lewis Hamilton was less fortunate when the Mercedes pit wall seemed to misjudge their strategy in the damp of Q2 and the seven-time champ was ignominiously bounced out at the end of that session. Hamilton will have to fight his way back from a lowly P13 start on a short, quick circuit that is mighty tough to pass on. Williams continued to show solid improvement, with the impressively maturing Alexander Albon quick all day en route to a final lap good enough for P4. Teammate Logan Sargeant had the high of making it into Q3 for the first time this year and then the immediate low of a heavy shunt after setting a decent time that brought his day to a premature end and resulted in a lengthy Red Flag period for barrier repair. Unable to improve any further, Seargant will have to settle for a season best P10 spot on the grid, assuming his car will be able to be fixed properly and doesn’t require a pit lane start due to all the damage.

Fernando Alonso was the sole Aston Martin to make the top 10 at P5 and Carlos Sainz was the lone Ferrari in P6 after teammate Charles Leclerc crashed and brought out the second Red Flag of Q3. Leclerc was relegated to a P9 start, again assuming his Prancing Horse doesn’t require more drastic repairs after taking a fairly brutal lateral wack to his left rear. Rounding out the Top 10 for tomorrow’s grid, the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez was a long way off his teammate’s pace in P7 and Oscar Piastri slid down to P8 in the second McLaren when the final times were tallied.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Dutch GP:

OS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:20.965 1:18.856 1:10.567 31
2 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:21.276 1:19.769 1:11.104 30
3 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:21.345 1:19.620 1:11.294 32
4 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:20.939 1:19.399 1:11.419 32
5 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:21.840 1:19.429 1:11.506 30
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:21.321 1:19.929 1:11.754 32
7 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:21.972 1:19.856 1:11.880 33
8 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:21.231 1:19.392 1:11.938 31
9 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:22.019 1:19.600 1:12.665 27
10 2 Logan Sargeant WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:22.036 1:20.067 1:16.748 27

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern. Verstappen will be hunting his ninth win on the trot in front of the hordes of orange clad Dutch fans. Hope to see you then to find out if anybody else has anything for him!

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!

2022 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Qualifying results

Verstappen snatches pole from Leclerc at Zandvoort, Sainz P3

Hometown hero Max Verstappen left it late but managed to wrest away pole position for tomorrow’s Dutch Grand Prix from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc during Saturday qualifying at the short, twisty and rolling  Zandvoort Circuit. The surging Red Bull ace pipped Leclerc’s very solid best effort by a mere .021 seconds in front of the adoring, orange-clad throng of his countrymen in the stands, locking in the fastest lap of Q3 before his teammate Sergio Perez spun out at the penultimate corner to bring the final quali session to a slightly premature end. Leclerc was not overly displeased to have missed out on the pole by such a small margin and, along with Carlos Sainz setting the third fastest time, Ferrari are feeling good about their chances to match Verstappen come race day. However, it must still be in the back of the Scuderia’s collective mind that their Prancing Horses’ fine one lap pace often evaporates under race conditions in the face of Verstappen’s supreme talent and the Red Bull’s so far superior long-run performance. With the 2022 season entering its final third, Leclerc and Ferrari have got to start beating Verstappen in the remaining eight races while also hoping the points leader has few unlucky DNFs along the way.

With Perez’s spin freezing him in P5 on the grid, Mercedes Lewis Hamilton was able to cross the line just ahead of the Mexican’s incident with a time good enough for P4. Along with George Russell’s P6 quali effort, the Silver Arrows felt they had more potentially to give in qualifying and will hope to convert that into a good race tomorrow, perhaps being able to mix it up with Ferrari for the podium positions on a short, twisty track that seems to suit the enigmatic Merc much better than long and flowing Spa did a week ago. The remainder of the top ten qualifiers featured sole representatives of their respective teams: Lando Norris P7 for McLaren, Mick Schumacher earning a much needed P8 start for Haas, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in P9 and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in P10. Stroll was very quick on the day but could not take part in Q3 due to a technical issue on his car. If the team can get that cleaned up by tomorrow, look for Lance to fight right up to Norris’s gearbox within the first ten laps, such has been the pace of the Mercedes-powered Aston so far.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Dutch GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:11.317 1:10.927 1:10.342 12
2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:11.443 1:10.988 1:10.363 18
3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:11.767 1:10.814 1:10.434 18
4 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:11.331 1:11.075 1:10.648 18
5 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING RBPT 1:11.641 1:11.314 1:11.077 19
6 63 George Russell MERCEDES 1:11.561 1:10.824 1:11.147 18
7 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:11.556 1:11.116 1:11.174 18
8 47 Mick Schumacher HAAS FERRARI 1:11.741 1:11.420 1:11.442 21
9 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI RBPT 1:11.427 1:11.428 1:12.556 21
10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:11.568 1:11.416 14

Complete qualifying results viable via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. With Verstappen looking to tighten his stranglehold on the championship at his home race and Leclerc desperate to thwart Max’s recent unstoppable momentum on a very tight track, it could be an incident filled affair. Hope to see you then to find put how it all shakes out!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Results & aftermath

DUTCH TREAT — Verstappen earns dominant win in F1’s return to Holland to the delight of delirious Dutch fans; Hamilton second best  on the day; Bottas a distant P3

Red Bull’s Dutch phenom Max Verstappen drove to a dominant win from pole on Sunday, earning a relatively easy victory at his home race in the return of the Netherlands Grand Prix at Zandvoort after an absence of some 36 years. In front of packed grandstands set amongst the dunes of this seaside circuit that were filled mostly with his raucously enthusiastic orange-clad countrymen, Verstappen drove away from the P2 Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton when the lights went out to start the race and never really looked back. He managed his tires brilliantly to maximize a one-stop strategy and eventually came home nearly 21-seconds up of the second place Hamilton after some late strategic miscues by the Mercedes pit wall allowed their number two driver Valtteri Bottas to make a late second stop for fresh Soft Pirellis and threaten Hamilton’s extra point for fastest lap. Hamilton and the team gave up on any chance of victory by pitting on Lap 71 of this 72-lap contest and then Hamilton salvaged that extra point by setting the fastest time on the final lap of the race. Still, with Verstappen’s two consecutive wins on the trot, including last week’s half point effort in the washout at Spa, the Dutchman is back into the lead over Hamilton for the Drivers’ World Championship by a slim 3 points. So, even though the two title contenders never really mixed it up on track at Zandvoort, such was Verstappen’s pace advantage over Lewis on the day, this is the kind of nip and tuck title battle between drivers on rival teams that Formula 1 fans have been clamoring for for years now. And certainly the throng of deliriously happy Dutch fans were thrilled with their man Max, who is singularly responsible for this race being back on the schedule after a decades-long hiatus, and will not be complaining about any aspect of Sunday’s contest even if his victory seemed preordained.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

For Bottas, who is likely out at Mercedes for next season in favor of Williams’ George Russell, it was another frustrating day being forced to play the loyal wingman to Hamilton instead of competing for his own prizes. At first deploying Bottas on a longer first stint than the top two in an effort to push Verstappen back into Hamilton’s clutches, when that didn’t really work the late call for fresh rubber on Lap 68 was made to protect the Finn from any kind of tire failure and preserve his number three position in the race. But when the team ordered him to dumb down his fast laps to preserve Hamilton’s extra point he was once again reminded where exactly he ranks within the Silver Arrows hierarchy. While he held on to that valuable P3 when the checkers flew, it must have been a bittersweet feeling for Bottas to say the least, especially as he appears to be exiting the team at the end of the year, But for Mercedes, their eventual two-three result was ultra-valuable in the all important Constructors’ fight with Red Bull. For while Red Bull’s number two Sergio Perez battled back gamely from a pit lane start after a poor qualifying and subsequent engine change, he could only fight his way up to a P8 finish worth just four points despite making what seemed like twenty passes along the way. The respective final results for the teams saw Mercedes leading Red Bull by twelve points in the Constructors’ after this thirteenth round of the Championship was done and dusted in Holland.

AlphaTauri’s impressive Pierre Gasly was the best of rest on the day, finishing a lap down on the top three but still a very solid P4 after a mostly lonely race running all by his lonesome. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc did try to catch up to Gasly as the laps wound down but ran out of time and placed in P5. Worse still for the Scuderia, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was able to pick off the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz on the final lap on fresher Hard Pirellis, nicking P6 and relegating Sainz to P7. Ferrari will be hoping for better results at their home circuit of Monza next weekend but its hardly a given they will actually have the straight line speed to contend for the podium places against, say, McLaren or Aston Martin. The second Alpine of Esteban Ocon came home in P9 and Lando Norris was able to work his McLaren into the last point paying position in P10 after starting from an uncharacteristically poor P13 on the grid.

Top 10 finishers of the Dutch GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 72 1:30:05.395 25
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 72 +20.932s 19
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 72 +56.460s 15
4 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 71 +1 lap 12
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 71 +1 lap 10
6 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 71 +1 lap 8
7 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 71 +1 lap 6
8 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 71 +1 lap 4
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 71 +1 lap 2
10 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 71 +1 lap 1

Complete race results available via Fomula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time, the Italian Grand Prix from the Temple of Speed that is Monza. Hamilton and Mercedes will be hoping the long straights there suit their car better than the tight twists of Zadvoort did, while Verstappen and Red Bull will simply be trying to keep their mojo working and the Silver Arrows in their rear view mirrors. Hope to see you then for all the action from Italy!

2021 F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands — Qualifying results

LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD — Verstappen seizes pole for the return of the Dutch GP; Hamilton bests Bottas for P2

After last week’s rainout at Spa, it was a welcome sight to see the return of the Dutch Grand Prix to the Formula 1 schedule after an absence of some 36 years. Not only was the weather at the historic beachside Zadvoort circuit bright and sunny, but the track itself was a delightful tonic to the F1 enthusiast, with its undulating, twisty topography, unpredictably banked corners and its old school gravel traps and lack of runoff areas. While many of the drivers had some experience here in the junior ranks, none had driven challenging Zandvoort in anything like Formula 1 machinery and the learning curve was steep. But Red Bull’s young Dutch master aced the test at his home circuit by laying down a blistering 1:08.885 lap time over the short 4.259 kilometer circuit and besting the rapidly improving P2 Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton as time ran out in Saturday’s final qualifying session by a mere .038 seconds. Hamilton, who had a power unit swap earlier in Friday practice that cost him loads of track time, seemed to close the gap to Verstappen’s benchmarks rapidly as Q3 wound down and it should be a highly competitive battle between the two top championship contenders come tomorrow’s race when they line up side by side at the start.  The race itself should likely be an unpredictable one with the walls so close and overtaking sure to be a difficult and frustrating proposition and the lap times very tight between competitors.

Hamilton’s P2 lap came at the expense of teammate Valtteri Bottas, who had held the second slot until the very last laps of qualifying were run. The Finn also looks to be out at Mercedes for next year, with Williams’ young, hard charging George Russell rumored to be taking his seat at the Silver Arrows and Valtteri moving to Alfa Romeo to replace the retiring Kimi Raikkonen. (Raikkonen will also miss this weekend’s action after testing positive for COVID-19. Longtime F1 driver Robert Kubica was brought in to replace him for the race.) Pierre Gasly continued to impress at AlphaTauri, blasting his way all the way up to P4 after being consistently fast all weekend long so far. The impressive Frenchman headed both the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who still managed solid efforts with times good enough for P5 and P6 respectively, a particularly good result for Sainz and his mechanics after the Spaniard mashed his front end into a barrier during free Practice 3 right before quali. Antonio Giovinazzi, who is also rumored to be on the hot seat at Alfa, pulled a great lap out of the bag to earn an impressive P7 on the grid. The two Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso qualified P8 and P9 respectively, and Daniel Ricciardo was the sole McLaren to make it into Q3 and then set the tenth fastest time. Surprisingly, his normally outstanding teammate Lando Norris failed to get out of Q2 after appearing to struggle with the gusty conditions here. Look for Lando, who will start back in P13, to storm his way up into the points come race day. He won’t be the only one out of position and hunting for early passing opportunities: Vertsappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez also got caught out by rapidly evolving track conditions early on and was unceremoniously bounced out in Q1. Coming off a very poor non-points finish at rainy Spa where he crashed on the reconnaissance lap, the veteran Mexican will have it all to do tomorrow if he is to be of any help to his teammate, as he will start way down in P16.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Dutch GP:

POS NO DRIVER CAR Q1 Q2 Q3 LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:10.036 1:09.071 1:08.885 15
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:10.114 1:09.726 1:08.923 17
3 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:10.219 1:09.769 1:09.222 17
4 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:10.274 1:09.541 1:09.478 17
5 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:09.829 1:09.437 1:09.527 18
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:10.022 1:09.870 1:09.537 19
7 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 1:10.050 1:10.033 1:09.590 17
8 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:10.179 1:09.919 1:09.933 17
9 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:10.435 1:10.020 1:09.956 13
10 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:10.255 1:09.865 1:10.166 17

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 8AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. With this tight and unforgiving track all but guaranteeing collisions between competitors and cars spearing off into the crash barriers, it should be an event-filled contest which could provide unpredictable results. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!