Dutch GP: Verstappen secures home win after late safety car
4th September 2022Red Bull’s Max Verstappen secured his home win, for the second time in a row, as he overtook Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton at the safety car restart.
How the race unfolded…
It was a good launch from the Dutch hero, Verstappen, who was able to cover off Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc into Tarzan (turn one) as the Monegasque’s teammate, Carlos Sainz, filtered in behind. However, as the Spaniard rotated back towards the apex, he accidentally collected Mercedes’ Hamilton.
Despite a snap of oversteer from the Mercedes, both Sainz and Hamilton were able to continue on in second and third respectively.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was fortunate enough to continue on as his car lost rear-grip as he approached the fast right-hander of turn two, on the second lap, and found himself skipping across the gravel trap. The Dane was able to keep his car out of the wall and continue on although his tyre swiped the last techpro barrier.
Over his team radio, Magnussen reassured:
“Car is okay”
By lap seven, Hamilton had closed up to Sainz and looked to shape up a move on the Ferrari’s Spaniard. While both Verstappen and Leclerc extended their lead out in front over the rest of the pack, five seconds separated the second-placed Monegasque over his teammate.
At the end of lap 12, Fernando Alonso ventured down into the pit lane to exchange his worn soft tyres for the white-ringed hard compound tyres – the first driver to do so.
Out of the front runners, Sainz was the first driver to pit from the race to swap his soft tyres for the mediums. However, the Ferrari team failed to have the rear-left tyre ready for the Spanish driver which left Sainz stationary in his pit box for an excruciating 12.7 seconds.
Meanwhile, the slow stop allowed Perez – who pitted at the same time – to jump the Ferrari driver in the pit lane.
After the first set of pits, for the soft tyre runners, Mercedes held a temporary 1-2 position with Hamilton out in front as Leclerc and Verstappen pitted for a set of Medium tyres on lap 18 and 19 respectively.
As Verstappen closed in on Hamilton, who inherited the race lead when Verstappen pitted, the Dutchman made light work, down the pit straight, on Mercedes’ George Russell. As a result, Hamilton boxed to swap his worn mediums for the white-stripped hards at the end of lap 30 in a bid to go to the end of the race on a one-stop.
On much fresher tyres, with a high chance of securing his first win of the season, Hamilton attempted the move on third-placed Perez down into turn one, on lap 36. However, the Mexican driver locked up into Tarzan and forced Hamilton wide before he closed the door on the corner exit.
A lap later, Hamilton was able to complete the move down into turn one. As the two drivers raced around the turn one hairpin, they were suddenly greeted by the rear wing of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel. The outgoing German’s appearance put Hamilton in a vulnerable position to be overtaken by Perez but the seven-time world champion was able to maintain new-found third place.
Despite blue flags, Vettel took his time to move out of the way which put him under investigation from the race control – for ignoring blue flags. The outgoing four-time world champion was later given a five-second time penalty for ignoring the ignoring the flags.
On lap 46, the yellow flag was waved as Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda parked up in the middle sector of the track. However, the Japanese driver was able to continue on and return to the pit lane without a safety car intervention. Despite a return to the pit lane, the Japanese driver still suffered issues with his AT02 and Tsunoda soon pulled off to the side of the road, which forced race control to deploy the Virtual Safety Car.
Under the VSC conditions, Verstappen, Hamilton and Russell pitted for fresher tyres. However, Verstappen was placed on the hard tyres while both Mercedes were equipped with the mediums.
As Verstappen crossed the line to start lap 50, the VSC was finally removed and the race got back underway. As the race restarted, the top three stood: Verstappen, Hamilton and Russell.
On lap 55, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas stopped on the inside line, into turn one, as his power unit died on him, this forced race control to deploy the safety car. During the safety car intervention, Verstappen peeled into the pit lane to swap his hard tyres for the faster soft compound tyres.
However, as the safety car was instructed to travel through the pit lane, Russell opted to swap his mediums for the soft compounds. This allowed Verstappen to sneak up into P2, just behind Hamilton who still had the medium tyres on.
At the end of lap 60, the safety car finally peeled back into the pit lane which left Hamilton in charge of the field’s pace. Despite Hamilton’s best efforts to keep Verstappen behind him, the Dutchman had a great slipstream down the pit straight which allowed the home hero to snatch away the race lead away from Hamilton into the first corner.
By the penultimate lap, Hamilton who led the race had dropped out of the podium positions and down to fourth – passed by his teammate, Russell, and Leclerc.
Podium:
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- George Russell, Mercedes
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
That’s it for the article: Dutch GP: Verstappen secures home win after late safety car! What do you think of Mercedes’ strategy call? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula 1 here!
- Dutch GP: Verstappen beat Leclerc by 0.021 seconds as Perez crashes
- Dutch GP: Leclerc fastest in FP3 as qualifying looks promising
- Dutch Grand Prix: Leclerc tops FP2 by 0.004 over Sainz
- Oscar Piastri signs McLaren for 2023
- F1 Dutch Grand Prix: Russell heads 1-2 in FP1 as Verstappen retires
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
