Verstappen reigns at home in rollercoaster race

Verstappen reigns at home in rollercoaster race: Analysis of the Dutch Grand Prix, brought to you by Bahrain International Circuit

F1 arrived in Zandvoort under the now familiar sea of orange, with patriotic fans as passionate as ever in welcoming home their world champion. Whilst last year they had hoped desperately for a Verstappen win, which he duly delivered, this year there was far more of an air of expectation for a victory given the results of the last few races.

Qualifying, however, showed that the race would unlikely be the walk in the park that the fans were expecting. Whilst Verstappen did take pole, Leclerc was just 2 hundredths of a second behind him, with the other Ferrari of Sainz only marginally behind that in third. The other big story from Saturday was the sudden resurgence of Mercedes, with Hamilton qualifying in fourth, looking very competitive on pace. He was slightly at a loss to explain the change in fortune for the team, comparing it to a ‘mood swing’ of the car. Whatever the reason, there was an expectation that this could be a strong race for the Silver Arrows. That expectation, when Sunday came, turned out to be well-founded.

On paper, many expected a two-stop race, with most of the grid opting to start on soft tyres, moving to mediums for the second two stints. Strategy would be a key element at this circuit, not least because it’s seen as a difficult track to overtake on.

The start of the race was fairly undramatic, with the top four all getting away in somewhat of a procession until the first round of pitstops arrived. Those on the two stops darted into the pits around lap 16 onwards, with Sainz in first. However, a bungled stop for the Spaniard cost over ten seconds and effectively took him out of contention. Yet another operational error from Ferrari will raise further eyebrows, confounded by a further mistake later in the race of an unsafe release, leaving to a five second penalty.

The remainder of the field had smooth stops although there was a notable absence of either Mercedes coming in. It swiftly became clear that they were gunning for a one stop race, looking for any opportunity to get an edge over Red Bull. This all meant that for the middle section of the race Hamilton and Russell were first and second, the first time that has happened for the team this season.

Hamilton took his planned only pit stop on lap 30 and whilst that left him behind both Red Bulls, he was on fresher tyres with Verstappen having to stop again. Russell followed soon after and their pace on the new hard tyres was remarkably quick, enabling then to overtake Perez before lap 40. At this stage, it seemed Hamilton had more than a good chance of a win. Just a few laps later, however, the race turned on its head.