The F1 show was at the Circuit Zandvoort for the first time since 1985 for the FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN DUTCH GRAND PRIX 2021. It was a race dominated by Max Verstappen from pole position, showing supreme pace that Mercedes could not match.
Both drivers on the front row got away well, but Max Verstappen was slightly faster in the second phase of the start. He covered off Lewis Hamilton into the first corner and moved into a comfortable lead of the race.
Fernando Alonso had a fantastic opening lap. He tried to overtake around the outside of the first corner, but was forced out slightly wide. He made some minor wheel-to-wheel contact with Esteban Ocon in the second corner before switching to the right side to take the outside of the banked turn three. He gained a few positions around the outside of the banking.
There was some concern for McLaren fans, as Daniel Ricciardo’s car started smoking slightly on the second lap. However, the team had him adjust some settings on the steering wheel and the issue was resolved quickly.
Lewis Hamilton was the first of the lead cars to pit for new tyres on lap 21. His stop was about a second slower than expected due to a minor issue putting on the set of medium compound tyres. This ended up being critical for Hamilton. Verstappen pitted the following lap, but came out a little less than 2 seconds ahead of Hamilton, meaning the Mercedes driver did not have DRS.
With Valtteri Bottas having inherited the race lead in the pit stop shuffle at the front, Mercedes decided to use him to help Hamilton catch his championship rival. It took about 10 laps for Verstappen to catch Bottas and he overtook him down the main straight. Bottas’ sacrifice worked for Hamilton, as he was now within DRS range to Verstappen. The two Mercedes cars safely swapped positions in turn 2. Hamilton didn’t stay in DRS range for long, dropping back outside of the one second gap before coming around to the end of the lap.
Hamilton was the first of the lead cars to make his second pit stop of the day on lap 40. In theory, Mercedes had a slight strategy advantage over Red Bull because they had an extra set of scrubbed medium compound tyres and Red Bull only had softs and hards remaining. Hamiltons car was fitted with the medium tyres, but the pit stop put him into some lapped traffic, which lost him some time.
Red Bull responded to Hamilton’s second stop, putting a new set of hard compound tyres on Verstappen. Verstappen rejoined the race in the lead, more than 3 seconds ahead of Hamilton.
A frustrated Lewis Hamilton voiced his anger over Mercedes’ strategy call over the team radio. He believed that there was too many laps in the race for the medium tyres to survive compared to Verstappen’s hard compound tyres. He also thought that the set of mediums he was on before the pit stop still had a lot of tyre life remaining, believing that they rushed the decision to pit.
After about 10 laps on the medium tyres, Hamilton seemed to settle into a rhythm on the tyres, setting lap times consistently faster than Verstappen. He was able to close the gap to within two seconds, but over the course of a few laps, the gap increased back to nearly 5 seconds, signalling the end of Hamilton’s chances at challenging for the lead of the race.
Fans were treated to a good battle between Lando Norris and Sergio Perez in the closing stages of the race, with Perez having made a great recovery drive after starting from the pit lane for an engine change ahead of the race. The battle ended with some pushing and shoving between the drivers in the first corner. Norris tried to force Perez out wide, making some contact with the side of the Red Bull and then taking a big hit to the rear tyre. Both drivers continued their battle, with Norris eventually losing the position.
Mercedes called Bottas into the pit for what they called a “precautionary stop for vibrations”. When rejoining the race, he was advised by the team not to go for the fastest lap so that Hamilton can keep the extra point for the fastest lap. Bottas responded by setting a fastest sector 1 and sector 2. Despite being told over team radio to abort his fastest lap attempt, he carried on to take the fastest lap and the extra point associated with it.
This forced Mercedes to pit Hamilton with only a few laps remaining in the race to try and take back the point for the fastest lap. He was able to get the job done as he crossed the finish line.
But all eyes were on Max Verstappen as the Dutch crowd erupted into a sea of cheers and orange smoke to celebrate seeing their national driver cross the finish line with the lead of the race and now the lead of the World Drivers’ Championship. Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas stood on the podium as well.
Teams won’t have any time to relax after this race. They will be heading off to Italy for the final race in the post-summer break triple header. The race will be held on the weekend of September 12.
| Pos. | Driver | |
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| DNF | ||
| DNF |
