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In front of a boisterous audience, Max Verstappen triumphed in the thrilling Dutch World Championship 2022 on Sunday, giving Red Bull a second straight victory in the competition held in his hometown. In a difficult race, the Formula One championship driver came out on top, finishing four seconds ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished third. Verstappen’s advantage has grown to 109 points after winning ten of the past fifteen races. Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time F1 winner, seemed to be leading with around 20 laps remaining. His team, however, neglected to replace his tires during the yellow time, leaving the British driver enraged and roaring profanity.
Key takeaways
- For the second time in a row, Max Verstappen claimed his world championship, the 2022 F1 Dutch GP
- Despite having the best start, the Dutchman subsequently got into a brawl with Lewis Hamilton, who would go on to win the 2021 championship
- The 24 years old is on the verge of capturing his two world championships after taking his tenth race triumph of the 2022 Formulation 1 season
- The Red Bull racer seemed to be having trouble earlier in the weekend since it seemed like Porsche and Mercedes were faster than the Australian team
- He is presently three victories away from tying Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher for the number of triumphs in a season, in classic Max Verstappen fashion
- This time, winning the defending world champion in Zandvoort wasn’t easy since Lewis Hamilton had been leading for most of the race before a tardy caution flag
Double Dutch: Max Verstappen's historic victory at home
Max Verstappen has thrived in Formulation Number 1 in his native Holland, but this season the Oracle Red Bull Sportsman used it as a base of operations in a place he hadn’t been before.
Verstappen saw the scene from the champion’s trophy at Zandvoort at this tie the year before. Still, a 2nd victory at the Dutch Grand Prix in front of 105,000 spectators wearing orange T-shirts was more precious than simply additional 26 points and a stride towards a more 2nd world championship. It was a fragment of personal background in a context that was becoming more unique.
Verstappen came to Zandvoort with 3 triumphs under his belt in Germany, Austria, and Belgian. However, the odds were not in his favour. He had never been unable to score a fourth victory, having twice won three straight events (in Styria, France, and Austria in 2021 and Miami, Emilia Romagna, and Spain this year).
Max shudders but salutes.
Verstappen finished 13th on the grid and triumphed in Belgium just 7 days before Zandvoort. Anyone could have been forgiven for believing that the Dutch GP winner, who began from pole and turned in the race’s quickest lap, would win comfortably. However, this wasn’t the case.
Verstappen took the lead on the 4.259-kilometre racetrack on Saturday by 0.021s or 1.85m. He could be capable of keeping the lead into the opening round, thanks to this little edge. It appears that the past will replay itself. Nevertheless, as the race continued, it flopped and flipped, delivering more curveballs.
Mercedes teammates Hamilton and Russell started the race by putting in a longer initial stint and moving up when Verstappen retired. A virtual car driver was deployed on lap 44 after Yuki Tsunoda’s struggling Scuderia AlphaTauri stopped alongside the circuit. This tipped the power balance back to Verstappen’s advantage when he pushed for rubber coated with both the opposition neutralised.
Checo is in the thick of it.
Last year, Pérez distinguished himself in Zandvoort, winning Driver of the Day for his gallant charge from the final lap to the seventh position. He was compensated for his endeavours with the fifth position at the banner on a day when he was rarely idle, even though his second excursion is not as noteworthy.
When the Mexican driver spun out on his final flying lap in qualifying, he finished sixth, which was the start of his difficulties.
Early on, Pérez chased Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz while putting his forearms out to preserve fifth. On Lap 18, Perez passed Sainz and climbed into fourth by trying to take advantage of the Spaniard’s sluggish pit stop. As he departed the constrained pit lane, Pérez ran into a wayward Ferrari wheel gun, although his RB18 was unscathed.
AlphaTauri is both very near and quite far away
Tsunoda and teammate Pierre Gasly left the Netherlands without collecting any points, with Gasly suffering the greatest because he spent 30 of the champion’s 72 laps from outside the top 10. He placed 11th overall in the end.
The French racer, who surprised the field by qualifying on the second row at Zandvoort last year and finished fourth, was ninth in Belgium a week earlier and finished four seconds shy of a second point performance in as many weeks.
In contrast, Tsunoda was a standout in Saturday’s qualifying, coming in ninth and qualifying for Q3 for just the fourth time this year. The Aston Martin driver Juan Lance and the Alpine driver Esteban Ocon overtook the Japanese racer on the first lap, dropping him to 11th. However, he maintained a lead over teammate Pierre Gasly until anything went wrong before his second tyre change.
Red Bull and Mercedes adopted opposite tyre strategies on lap 36, so Hamilton concentrated on Pérez, and the two engaged in a thrilling battle. Before the Tsunoda-sparked fake safety car eight races later, Pérez’s heroic defence helped to maintain Verstappen’s advantage over the seven-time champion.
