By Mark Karp
Max Verstappen won the Dutch Grand Prix in his Red Bull, 4.071 seconds ahead of George Russell in the Mercedes GP in second place, and Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari taking third place, 10.929 seconds behind the winner.
The win is the tenth victory of the season for Verstappen, fourth-in-a-row, and 30th of his career. Verstappen has extend his lead in the Drivers’ Championship to 310 points, 109 points over second place, which is shared by Leclerc and Perez at 201 points. Red Bull now leads the Constructors’ Championship by 135 points over Ferrari in second.
Lewis Hamilton (13.016s) in the second Mercedes was fourth, followed by Sergio Perez (18.168s) in the second Red Bull was fifth, Fernando Alonso (18.754s) in the Alpine-Renault was sixth, Lando Norris (19.306s) in the McLaren-Mercedes was seventh, Carlos Sainz (20.916s), with a 5-second penalty in the Ferrari was eighth, Esteban Ocon (21.117s) in the second Alpine was ninth, and Lance Stroll (22.459s) in the Aston Martin-Mercedes took the final point in tenth place.
Max Verstappen won his home race in
By Mark Karp
Before the start, clouds started to roll in and it was warm and muggy, with a 20% chance of rain.
Verstappen is on pole for his home race with Leclerc alongside on the front row, Sainz and Hamilton are on row 2, Perez and Russell on row 3, Norris and Schumacher on row 4 and Tsunoda and Stroll rounding out the top ten on the grid.
The Red Bulls and Ferraris starting of soft tyres, Hamilton and Russell starting on medium tyres.
At the appointed time the field left the grid for the formation lap, the sea of orange in full force around the circuit, the drivers lined up, the lights went out and the race began with Verstappen leading Hamilton and Sainz nearly touch in the first corner. Norris passes Russell for sixth.
On lap 2 Magnesen goes off at turn 2 and kisses the wall, but continues.
Russell is able to get back past Norris and runs in sixth.
On lap 3 Verstappen has a 1.5 second lead on Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Perez, Russell, Norris, Stroll, Ocon and Schumacher in tenth.
On lap 5 Hamilton has closed to DRS range with Sainz.
On lap 6 Leclerc sets fast lap at 1m16.213s.
On lap 10 Alonso passes Gasly for 12th.
At lap 10 Verstappen leads Leclerc by 1.7 seconds, followed by Sainz (7.1s), Hamilton (7.9s), Perez (9.8s), Russell (11.0s), Norris (15.6s0, Stroll (17.9s), Ocon (20.9s), and Schumacher (23.1s) in tenth place.
On lap 12 Alonso passes Tsunoda for 11th.
Ricciardo pits and switches to medium tyres.
On lap 13 Alonso pits for hard tyres, Zhou puts for soft tyres.
On lap 14 Tsunoda pits for medium. Schumacher has a
Sainz and Perez both pit. Perez for medium tyres, Sainz with a slow stop for medium tyres.
On lap 17 Stroll pits along with Botas.
Schumacher passes Vettel for 15th.
On lap 18 Leclerc pits from second for medium tyres and rejoins in fourth. Norris pits for hard tyres and rejoins in ninth.
On lap 19 leader Verstapppen pits switching to medium tyres and he rejoins third behind Hamilton and Russell.
Ocon pits as well for hard tyres and rejoins in 11th.
On lap 19 Perez sets fast lap at 1m16.138s.
On lap 20 Verstappen sets fast lap at 1m15.904s.
At lap 20 Hamilton leads Russell by 3.3 seconds, followed by Verstappen (8.0s), Leclerc (13,0s), Perez (20.1s), Sainz (31.5s), Albon (34.3s), Norris (35.2s), Stroll (36.8s), and Alonso (38.4s) in tenth place.
On lap 22 Albon pits for medium tyres.
The two Mercedes are the only drivers yet to pit.
On lap 27 Verstappen passes Russell in the DRS for second place.
Verstappen sets fast lap at 1m15.725s.
Ricciardo pits for his second stop for hard tyres.
On lap 29 Hamilton pits from the lead and switches to hard tyres and rejoins in fifth – Verstappen resumes back in the lead.
At lap 30 Verstappen leads Russell bt 3.7 seconds, followed by Leclerc (7.9s), Perez (14.8s), Hamilton (19.1s), Sainz (31.4s), Norris (34.2s), Stroll (38.7s), Alonso (40.1s), and Ocon (44.1s) in tenth.
Russell pits from second place for hard tyres and rejoins in fifth.
On lap 33 Russell sets fast lap at 1m15.477s.
Bottas passes Schumacher for 13th.
On lap 34 Hamilton sets fast lap at 1m15.472s.
Hamilton has closed within DRS of Perez.
On lap 35 Russell sets fast lap at 1m15.422s.
Hamilton makes an attempt at passing Perez but the Mexican keeps the position,
The next lap Hamilton passes Perez for third place into the first corner.
Hamilton is held up by the lapped Vettel, and Perez try to get back around, but Hamilton keeps the position.
On lap 38 Hamilton sets fast lap at 1m15.116s.
Russell passes Perez for fourth, the two Mercedes running very fast at this point of the race.
Red Bull asks Verstappen what tyres he thinks he wants to take, he can either take soft or hard.
Perez pits from fifth for hard tyres and resumes in seventh.
At lap 40 Verstappen leads Leclerc by 10.7 seconds, followed by Hamilton (17.6s), Russell (21.0s), Sainz (38.5s), Norris (43.8s), Perez (46.0s), Alonso (48.0s), Ocon (52.6s) and Tsunoda (1m06.4s) in tenth place.
Magnussen passes Ricciardo for 18th.
On lap 42 Perez sets fast lap at 1m14.930s.
Ferrari tells Leclerc
Sainz pits for hard tyres and rejoins in ninth.
On lap 45 Tsunda pulls to the side of the track, and teams are anticipating a virtual safety car. Tsunoda thought his tires were not attached correctly in his pitstop. AlphaTauri tells him that it is all correct, and he starts running again and pits.
Leclerc pits for hard tyres and rejoins in fourth.
Tsunoda rejoins, but is running slow, and the team reports the is a problem with the diff and he stops on track again.
The virtual safety car is out, and leader Verstappen pits for hard tyres, Hamilton and Russell both bit for medium tyres.
At lap 49 the race resumes with Verstappen leading Hamilton and Russell.
At lap 50 Verstappen leads Hamilton by 12.7 seconds, followed by Russell (15.6s), Leclerc (21.0s), Perez (27.7s), Ocon (44.8s), Sainz (49.1s), Norris (50.4s), Alonso (52.0s), and Stroll (56.6)
On lap 51 Russell sets fast ;a[ at 1m14.223s.
On lap 52 Alonso sets fast lap at 1m14.144s.
On lap 53 Alonso makes an attempt to pass Norris for eighth, but can’t quite take it.
On lap 53 Russell sets fast lap at 1m13.947s.
On lap 54 Hamilton sets fast lap at 1m13,854s, and trails Verstappen by 11.0 seconds.
On lap 55 Bottas stops on the side of the track with an engine failure. Sainz was passing Ocon at the time. Sainz asks the team, “do I let him by?”
The safety car is out.
Vestappen pits for soft tyres, Leclerc pits for medium tyres and Perez pits for medium tyres.
The cars pass though the pits to avoid the cleanup of Bottas.
Russell pits and changes to soft tyres. Sainz has a potential unsafe release ahead of Alonso.
Sainz is given a 5-seconds penalty for an unsafe release.
Under the safety car Hamilton leads Verstappen, Russell, Leclerc, Perez, Sainz, Alonso, Norris, Ocon and Stroll in tenth.
On the track the lapped cars are able to come around.
At lap 60 the safety car comes in and the race resumes with Hamilton leading Verstappen.
Sainz passes Perez for fifth.
Verstappen passes Hamilton into the first corner for the lead, followed by Russell, Leclerc, Sainz, Perez Alonso, Norris, Ocon and Stroll in tenth.
On lap 61 Verstappen sets fast lap at 1m13.682s, and again the next lap at 1m13.652s.
On lap 64 Russell passes Hamilton in the DRS to take second place. Hamilton complains to the team that under the safety car that they messed up the strategy.
On lap 65 Leclerc is pressuring Hamilton for third.
On lap 66 Leclerc passes Hamilton into the first corner to take third place. Hamilton on the medium tyres is under pressure from all the soft runners.
Norris is pressuring Alonso for seventh.
Perez tries to pass Sainz on the outside, and runs off the exit of the corner and cannot get past.
At lap 70, with two to go, Verstappen leads Russell by 4.4 seconds, followed by Leclerc (9.1s), Hamilton (11.6s), Sainz (15.5s), Perez (16.9s), Alonso (17.9s), Norris (18.9s), Ocon (20.4s), and Stroll (21.6s) is tenth.
At the finish Verstappen takes the flag ahead of Russell and Leclerc.
