Verstappen bags home win in the rain

Verstappen bags home win in the rain: Analysis of the Dutch Grand Prix brought to you by Bahrain International Circuit

There was a back to school feeling in the F1 Paddock, as teams returned from their summer break, rested, reinvigorated and energized for the remainder of the season, starting with The Dutch Grand Prix.

As you would expect, it was a sea of orange which dominated the Zandvoort circuit, as Verstappen’s adoring fans were out in force, over 300,000 of them over the weekend, expecting yet another victory for the home favorite. Given what has happened so far this season, that expectation for victory was comfortably well founded. The real question was whether teams below Red Bull had found some performance over the summer break to try and begin to bridge what has been for much of this season a Grand Canyon sized gap.

On the evidence of qualifying, it didn’t seem like Verstappen would face too many issues. In a session affected by the unpredictable Northern European weather, he was well over half a second faster compared to the rest of the field. Lando Norris continued the incredible momentum for McLaren in the lead up to the summer break, joining Verstappen on the front row. George Russell was an impressive third, whist his teammate Lewis Hamilton started way back in 13th after going out rather surprisingly in Q2. Perhaps the star of the show, however, was Alex Albon in the Williams in an impressive fourth, combining his raw driving talent with a much-improving car. At the other end of the scale, the summer break appeared to have done little for the fortunes of Ferrari, with Sainz only managing sixth and Leclerc further back in ninth. There was disappointment too for Daniel Ricciardo who didn’t even make the grid. An accident in qualifying left him with a broken wrist and he was replaced by the Kiwi Liam Lawson, a proven talent in junior series, but a big ask for someone who has never competitively raced an F1 car.

The race itself was dominated by the weather, creating a sense of drama to keep fans thoroughly enthralled for the duration. It also meant that it wasn’t the casual Sunday afternoon drive that Verstappen fans were hoping for. The rain came down as early as lap one. So, whist there was a clean start to the race, teams had to make immediate decisions on changing to wet tyres. Those that went early, including Perez and Leclerc, gained a major advantage, whilst a delay to lap three for teams including McLaren, cost them time that they would spend the rest of the race trying to recover. It was the perfect example of the importance of the human element of F1. So much is made of the technology of the cars, telemetry, access to advanced weather forecasts etc, but those snap human decisions can often be the crucial factor for success.

Verstappen pitted a lap later than Perez, losing him almost 15 seconds, meaning he had much to do if he wanted to chase a third successive home win. The home hero did indeed make up that time and at the next set of pit stops he got the jump on Perez and took the lead, by that time moving away from the wet tyres, with a swiftly drying track.

That lead remained comfortable, until lap 62 when the rain started to fall incredibly hard. Conditions swiftly became too treacherous for racing, with a number of cars going off track, so the race was red flagged to allow the rain to ease. Some have questioned why, with two types of wet weather tyres available, racing can’t continue. Lack of visibility is one of the main safety concerns and whilst the FIA have recently conducted some tests to try and seek solutions to allow for racing in such conditions, under the current setup the only option was to delay the race resumption.