Dutch Grand Prix

F1 IS back with the world's best drivers heading to Holland for the Dutch Grand Prix. No matter where you are on the planet, if you're looking to watch and ...

An IP address is the unique identifier for your device which you need to connect to the internet and it reveals your current location. If you're looking to watch all the F1 action today then here's the details you need to know... You will be able to watch all the action from the Circuit Zandvoort live if you have a Sky Sports subscription in the UK but no matter where you are we've got you covered. If you miss the iconic race live highlights will be shown on Sky Sports F1 from 5.30pm. If you're on holiday, it might be possible to use a VPN to change your location. F1 IS back with the world's best drivers heading to Holland for the Dutch Grand Prix.

Follow all the reaction from the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort as Max Verstappen wins his home race in dramatic fashion.

After the race, Hamilton took aim at his team again, saying over the radio: “I can’t believe you guys. He was then handed a five-second penalty for an unsafe release when he stopped under the safety car, demoting him to eighth. [Terms of use,](https://www.independent.co.uk/service/user-policies-a6184151.html) [Cookie policy](https://www.independent.co.uk/service/cookie-policy-a6184186.html) and [Privacy notice.](https://www.independent.co.uk/service/privacy-policy-a6184181.html) I am proud to be Dutch.” “It was not a straightforward race. [Privacy policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en) and [Terms of service](https://policies.google.com/terms?hl=en) apply. Hamilton crossed the line 13 seconds behind Verstappen. “I can’t believe you guys, f****** f***** me,” blasted Hamilton. Hamilton crossed the line in fourth. Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism “I had a good run on the restart and we had a really good balance in the car. Hamilton was a contender to take his first win of a poor season after he adopted a one-stop strategy and charged his way from fourth to second.

RaceFans has held polls on every F1 race since 2008 to find out which fans thought of each round of the season. Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on ...

- 10 (5%) - 5 (5%) - 4 (4%) - 2 (3%) - 1 (4%) Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

Recap our text commentary and video clips as Max Verstappen won his home race and Lewis Hamilton raged at Mercedes strategy.

Verstappen pipped Charles Leclerc to pole position for the race at Zandvoort, but might have been beaten by someone else had Perez's spin not ruined others' ...

"It has been a harder weekend for us than it was in Belgium so we will try our best to make sure we are able to maximise everything. "It was a shame," said the Mexican, reacting to the spin. While Verstappen was able to overcome some early struggles in practice to gain a good result, Perez has lacked pace throughout the weekend so far. "It was a good three-tenths [of a second up] on my previous time so I could have got another tenth, tenth-and-a-half which would have put me P4, P3 maybe. The spin also ended Perez's own chances of starting on the front row, and instead he had to settle for fifth. "It's not the case at the end. [The home favourite put in an excellent lap at the death](https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/breaking-dutchgp-qualifying-verstappen-hamilton-27899799) which narrowly beat the time set by [Charles Leclerc](https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/charles-leclerc) a few moments earlier. It's not his fault." Then, he received a helping hand from his [Red Bull](https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/red-bull-f1) team-mate who span at the final corner of his own last flying lap. It is what it is and tomorrow, hopefully, I am able to have a strong start and just go with the lead early on and be in the fight for the race." "It's very frustrating. [Lewis Hamilton](https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/lewis-hamilton) was having a stormer and [could have been in contention for pole](https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/wolff-hamilton-qualifying-verstappen-time-27900611) had it not been for Perez's spin, [Mercedes](https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/mercedes-f1) chief [Toto Wolff](https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/toto-wolff) claimed.

FormulaNerds.com — Features — Formula One returns to Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix, so let's take a look at one of the most famous races at the Dutch ...

However, none of these stats or standings were in the minds of the paddock, whether that was drivers, team principals or the fans that stood in the fields at Zandvoort and saw the crash first-hand. Their legacy lives on in how F1 runs their safety programmes and the halo, which has saved countless lives since its introduction in 2018. Purley later won the George Medal, the highest honour in the Commonwealth and entered 5 more F1 races. He could have been a consistent driver in the top 10 if he was given better machinery and wasn’t a driver lost far too soon. One fire extinguisher wasn’t enough to put the flames out, and sadly it was all in vain. On the opening lap, Jackie Oliver crashed out in his Shadow and by lap three, Fittipaldi retired due to pains that he was suffering from.

Max Verstappen took yet another consummate victory - his 10th in 15 races so far this year - as he marches serenely to a second title that is now inevitable.

But also the car was quite heavy and reducing the weight it all felt a bit more agile." "There is no doubt we have the race pace to be able to win. "I really thought we were going to be fighting for the win," Hamilton said. Hamilton knew he was in trouble, saying over the radio it would be difficult to hold the drivers on softs behind, and so it proved. "The gap after VSC was still big enough to manage," he said. He had the engine in the wrong mode at the restart. There was "no evidence" of any wrongdoing, a spokesman said, pointing out the FIA has access to a lot of data and all team communications. But it was too early for a set of softs, so they fitted hards, which Verstappen had not wanted because he did not like the feel of the car on them. Which required officials to deploy the virtual safety car so the car could be moved to a safe place. Had the race carried on with no caution periods, Verstappen would have pitted and dropped to third. After pitting for tyres, Tsunoda stopped on track on lap 44, and said over the radio that a wheel was lose. A week ago, at high-speed Spa, the Mercedes was out of its "sweet spot".

The Mercedes driver has apologised for an expletive-riddled tirade after a decision not to change his tyres saw him slip from first to fourth.

“The team are a group of young, determined individuals,” he said. However when they failed to pit him for fresh tyres, he was left helpless on track and was swiftly passed. He let fly at them over the team radio as he was left on old tyres for the closing stages and swiftly fell from first to fourth place in a race won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

This season had been a trying old slog for Lewis Hamilton at best and his frustration and disappointment at the Sisyphean task of repeatedly wrangling a ...

This was a risk but it proved inspired, the hard tyre was quicker than expected and Hamilton made the most of it. Intending to go long they did so and then switched both Hamilton and Russell to the hard tyre to one-stop and make it to the flag. It was made more so as, until those final moments, Mercedes had played a blinder to put him in real contention against the faster Red Bulls and Ferraris. Over 90 minutes after the finish Hamilton spoke to the media having had time to calm down and regain his equilibrium. This season had been a trying old slog for Lewis Hamilton at best and his frustration and disappointment at the Sisyphean task of repeatedly wrangling a recalcitrant Mercedes has been palpable. What was most noticeable as these tense moments played out and Hamilton saw his chances slipping away was the unusual virulence of his reaction.

Max Verstappen clinched a hard-fought home victory against Mercedes after strategy chaos in the Dutch Grand Prix, as a furious Lewis Hamilton dropped from ...

As the race progressed, it looked like Verstappen would have to overtake both Hamilton and Russell on a tight circuit. But, soon after, Russell demanded soft tyres too and his team listened, now putting him third and leaving Hamilton a sitting duck on his eight-lap-old medium tyres. You can either pit Lewis, lose track position against Verstappen, and leave George out - screwed. Hamilton, having calmed down slightly, praised the mechanics and the team's result, with Mercedes now appearing Red Bull's main challengers. "First of all, Lewis is ahead. "That was the biggest **** up," said Hamilton on team radio.

Hamilton was furious with his team after being left on old tyres and the seven-time champion finished fourth after leading the race with 12 laps remaining.

After the race, Hamilton took aim at his team again, saying over the radio: “I can’t believe you guys. He was then handed a five-second penalty for an unsafe release when he stopped under the safety car, demoting him to eighth. [Terms of use,](https://www.independent.co.uk/service/user-policies-a6184151.html) [Cookie policy](https://www.independent.co.uk/service/cookie-policy-a6184186.html) and [Privacy notice.](https://www.independent.co.uk/service/privacy-policy-a6184181.html) I am proud to be Dutch.” “It was not a straightforward race. [Privacy policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en) and [Terms of service](https://policies.google.com/terms?hl=en) apply. Hamilton crossed the line 13 seconds behind Verstappen. “I can’t believe you guys, f****** f***** me,” blasted Hamilton. Hamilton crossed the line in fourth. Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism “I had a good run on the restart and we had a really good balance in the car. Hamilton was a contender to take his first win of a poor season after he adopted a one-stop strategy and charged his way from fourth to second.

Max Verstappen won the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on Sunday, his 10th victory of the season for Red Bull.

Nothing could deny Max Verstappen’s Spa surge as he charged to a ninth Formula 1 win of the season, while yet more bad luck and questionable calls mired Charles Leclerc. OPINION: Audi's arrival in Formula 1 for 2026 was confirmed on the eve of the Belgian Grand Prix. After a flawless Belgian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen and Red Bull were given a tougher time on the opening day at Zandvoort.

Max Verstappen held onto victory in a captivating 2022 Dutch Grand Prix amid a strong showing from the Mercedes and late Safety Car drama at Zandvoort, ...

Team mate Perez was sent into the pits for hard tyres on Lap 41, emerging P7 and right in front of Alonso, but the Mexican soon found his feet and began to turn up the pace, passing hard-shod Norris on Lap 44. The race resumed on Lap 50, hard-shod Verstappen leading Hamilton by over 12 seconds while Russell was in third, five seconds ahead of hard-tyred Leclerc. Perhaps a Virtual Safety Car would be called – a reprieve for Leclerc and Verstappen in the face of two swift Mercedes. With Mercedes putting on a show of pace on their hard tyres, both closing in on Leclerc, Verstappen was asked for his take on the strategy. Hamilton was then pulled in for a set of hards on Lap 30, releasing Verstappen back into the lead as the Mercedes driver emerged ahead of a now medium-shod Sainz. Verstappen responded to Leclerc’s stop on Lap 19 – losing time as he was stationary for 3.4 seconds – and emerged around four seconds ahead of the Ferrari while Hamilton led Russell. At the start of Lap 36, Hamilton closed in on Perez and the Mexican locked up heavily in defence of P3 into Turn 1. As Russell retook P6 off Norris, the top six was unchanged by Lap 5 – but Hamilton was gaining on Sainz in the chase for P3. Almost miraculously, he continued on in last place and reported that the car was okay – and there was no Safety Car either. Hamilton ended up fourth at the flag as Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez – the former held back by a calamitous Ferrari pit stop earlier on, before a five-second penalty for an unsafe release in a later stop – battled late on for P5. A huge roar, and it was lights out for this 72-lap duel on the dunes. In that restart, Verstappen swept past the Mercedes for the lead, with Russell and Leclerc following suit to pry Hamilton away from the podium.

DRIVERS 1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing) 2 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)3 – Charles LECLERC (Ferrari) TRACK INTERVIEWS(Conducted by David Coulthard) Q: ...

You go through all the procedures so it's nice, of course, to see all the crowd and the craziness and I appreciate it a lot but I think also, as a sportsman, you focus on your job, right? As a racing driver and where we are at the moment as a team, we want to win. MV: Not real weaknesses but we know at some places where we are stronger than others, we know on a high downforce track that it's a bit of a more difficult situation to get the best out of our package. And then of course, after the race, you take it all in and of course, this was a very special weekend for me, to see, all of these fans come out and support me. But I think I don't need to tell anyone in the team, the motivation we have, to always try to improve and to win races, even when we win races, we still want to do better. And also, today we will look at a lot of things that we can do better but I think that's what you always need to have, that kind of approach, always wanting to do more, wanting to do better, because that's how you stay on top because if you stand still, of course, people at the end will overtake you. And then we went out and we were clearly lacking a little bit of pace on that Hard compared to the Mercedes cars on the Medium. If we continue to qualify P6 and P8 as we have done in the last two race weekends, we're going to really struggle to win a race. MV: I have to say, when I swapped to the Medium, of course, I was catching them, which is normal because I had a newer tyre, they were still doing good lap times, I have to say. But then, of course, with that late Safety Car, we could switch back to the preferred tyre, the Soft one, and we could get back into lead. MV: Yeah, I mean, before that Safety Car I thought it was OK to the end with the Hard tyres, even though we were a bit slower. I know you take one race at a time and you never give up but what is your feeling now in the championship challenge?

The 15th round of the 2022 Formula 1 season may have initially promised a Max Verstappen walkover but it quickly became far more tense and controversial ...

Vettel was making small progress when he came out ahead of a scrapping Hamilton and Perez. It was he who overruled his Mercedes team and boldly made the call to pit and concede second place to Verstappen. – JC – VK Alonso then repelled the McLaren for good measure. This switch to the soft tyres gave him far superior grip to his team-mate who he easily cast aside – albeit via nearly running into the back of Hamilton such was his pace advantage.

Transcript from the post-race interviews and FIA hosted top three press conference after the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.

You go through all the procedures so it’s nice, of course, to see all the crowd and the craziness and I appreciate it a lot but I think also, as a sportsman, you focus on your job, right? As a racing driver and where we are at the moment as a team, we want to win. MV: Not real weaknesses but we know at some places where we are stronger than others, we know on a high downforce track that it’s a bit of a more difficult situation to get the best out of our package. And then of course, after the race, you take it all in and of course, this was a very special weekend for me, to see, all of these fans come out and support me. But I think I don’t need to tell anyone in the team, the motivation we have, to always try to improve and to win races, even when we win races, we still want to do better. And also, today we will look at a lot of things that we can do better but I think that’s what you always need to have, that kind of approach, always wanting to do more, wanting to do better, because that’s how you stay on top because if you stand still, of course, people at the end will overtake you. And then we went out and we were clearly lacking a little bit of pace on that Hard compared to the Mercedes cars on the Medium. If we continue to qualify P6 and P8 as we have done in the last two race weekends, we’re going to really struggle to win a race. MV: I have to say, when I swapped to the Medium, of course, I was catching them, which is normal because I had a newer tyre, they were still doing good lap times, I have to say. But then, of course, with that late Safety Car, we could switch back to the preferred tyre, the Soft one, and we could get back into lead. MV: Yeah, I mean, before that Safety Car I thought it was OK to the end with the Hard tyres, even though we were a bit slower. I know you take one race at a time and you never give up but what is your feeling now in the championship challenge?

Did Mercedes lose a victory by failing to put soft tyres on Lewis Hamilton's car for the final restart? Here's all the data from the Dutch GP.

C3 (13) C3 (8) C3 (24) C3 (9) C3 (11) C3 (15) C3 (25) C3 (12) C3 (14) C3 (17) C3 (16) C3 (18)

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: I think we can be pretty pleased with the way that we executed the race today. There were a huge range of valid ...

Due to the issue in qualifying we didn’t really get the chance to see where we would have been on pace, so one to learn from. We didn't expect much from the high downforce circuit, so it's positive and I think going forward we won't be so scared of these types of circuits and can focus on fighting for points. Alex Albon: I think coming into today, we didn't have high expectations, so think we've proven we're not too far away from the points.

Verstappen triumphs again and we saw more of Red Bull's imperious strategy, while the FIA moves late on safety car calls. Max Verstappen celebrating at ...

The Milton Keynes-based team are going to win both championships primarily because they have produced the year’s best car and possess the fastest racing driver in the world. - Kevin Magnussen – Haas – +36.869 - Mick Schumacher – Haas – +32.995 - Carlos Sainz – Ferrari – +20.916 - Lando Norris – McLaren – +19.306 - Fernando Alonso – Alpine – +18.754 - Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – +13.016 - Charles Leclerc – Ferrari – +10.929 - George Russell – Mercedes – +4.071 This season Ferrari have made huge errors on their pit wall almost every single weekend, and things are not improving. Ferrari were never really in contention for the win at Zandvoort after Verstappen managed to hold off the challenge of both Leclerc and team-mate Carlos Sainz into Turn 1. Verstappen swiftly re-took the lead and secured his tenth from 15 grands prix so far this season.

Lewis Hamilton (16%) · George Russell (6%) · Max Verstappen (57%) · Sergio Perez (0%) · Charles Leclerc (0%) · Carlos Sainz Jnr (0%) · Lando Norris (4%) · Daniel ...

- Charles Leclerc (0%) - Sergio Perez (0%) Who put their team mate in the shade?

No matter how far they have been behind Red Bull and Ferrari, however far off the pace of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, team and driver have maintained ...

In the end, Verstappen and Red Bull won once again even when the odds seem stacked against them. “I thought they’d keep George out as a rear runner to try and hold Max back,” he said. The team, its drivers, and entire workforce had done a superb job across the weekend up until the point the wrong judgement call was made. It is the Mercedes pitwall which was responsible for the fumble by accepting his proposal rather than trying to defend a potential race win as staunchly as they could. “I can’t believe you guys f***ed me like this,” he raged. “It’s going to be hard to keep that car behind me now guys,” Hamilton wearily retorted over team radio after Verstappen emerged from his cheap pit stop with no buffer separating the pair. - Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – +13.016 Hamilton was the only man at the front on mediums and dropped to fourth by the chequered flag. Verstappen waltzed past Hamilton immediately after the re-start and strolled into the distance to take the win. A given that they would want to have a two-car buffer ahead of Verstappen. Imagine their delight, then, when a chaotic final portion of the Dutch Grand Prix caused by a late safety car left Hamilton in first, with team-mate George Russell behind, separating him and home favourite Verstappen. They may not be able to challenge outright, but Mercedes and Hamilton have striven hard enough to give themselves the potential to take advantage in key moments.

Max Verstappen tightened his grip on the Formula 1 world title with another home win at the Dutch Grand Prix.

OPINION: Audi's arrival in Formula 1 for 2026 was confirmed on the eve of the Belgian Grand Prix. After a flawless Belgian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen and Red Bull were given a tougher time on the opening day at Zandvoort. Just 0.021 seconds had split Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix on Saturday.

Which drivers kicked sand in the faces of their rivals by the Zandvoort seaside? Here's our ratings for round 15 of the season.

Yuki Tsunoda: You can often rely on Yuki for some entertainment and he let nobody down with a quite bizarre retirement, twice stopping out on track with a trip to the pits in between – complete with mechanics furtling around in the cockpit to refasten his seatbelts. He had been running close to his Alfa Romeo team-mate Zhou before that and even if he had got round, it was never going to be a vintage race for Valtteri. A big mistake in qualifying meant he started down in 19th and he was always on the back foot from there. Sebastian Vettel: First to pit, Vettel later found himself in the way of a battle between Hamilton and Perez – and received a five-second penalty for ignoring blue flags when he emerged from the pits. Started where he finished, but that was creditable in the circumstances and he deserves praise also for a strong qualifying performance. [Esteban Ocon](https://live.planetf1.com/f1-drivers/esteban-ocon): A good start in which he made up three places and then a planned one-stop strategy which obviously had to be adapted due to the Safety Car. He deserved better than P8 on the day and understandably described it as “a mess”, although his race pace did leave a bit to be desired compared to his colleague. Early passes on the two AlphaTauris set the tone and although there was an awkward moment in a dice with Lando Norris, he eventually got past the McLaren – importantly in the battle for P4 in the Constructors’ Championship. Lewis Hamilton: Sending the bleep machine into overdrive with a team radio rant, Hamilton sensed a first win of 2022 was on the cards until he was hung out to dry when left out on his medium tyres following the Safety Car period. [Max Verstappen](https://live.planetf1.com/f1-drivers/max-verstappen): It’s now four triumphs in a row for the World Champion but this was something of a paradox to the previous two, in which he had started down the grid but ended up winning comfortably. Pole position, race win, fastest lap – almost the full set, and the fact he did not lead for the entirety will not matter a jot to his supporters as this was another faultless display. The younger of the two Britons benefited considerably from a Mercedes strategy – to which he had also contributed with team radio input – that was strangely reminiscent of what Ferrari had done at the British Grand Prix, only he could not emulate Carlos Sainz at Silverstone by bagging the race win.

The Dutch Grand Prix was once again a win for Max Verstappen. The Dutchman dominated the race weekend in Zandvoort and that is reflected in his grade from ...

[Sebastian Vettel](/en/f1-drivers/sebastian-vettel) had a bad weekend on behalf of Aston Martin. [Esteban Ocon](/en/f1-drivers/esteban-ocon), as Alpine's future leader, had to watch Alonso steal the show again on Sunday. [Lando Norris](/en/f1-drivers/lando-norris) drove in contrast to his teammate a strong weekend. The race was a good follow-up to a top ten finish in qualifying. [Charles Leclerc](/en/f1-drivers/charles-leclerc) had some bad luck with the first VSC, but otherwise drove a solid weekend. He lacked race pace compared to Leclerc and Verstappen and was easily passed by the Mercedes later in the race.

Max Verstappen earned a second Formula 1 victory on home soil but he wasn't the best-performing driver of the Dutch Grand Prix.

He felt at one with the car throughout qualifying, outpacing Magnussen in Q1, judging the track evolution superbly and was rewarded with eighth place – albeit with the advantage of not having his fresh-tyre lap ruined by Perez’s spin, which allowed him to beat Tsunoda. Alfa Romeo felt it had stronger race pace than qualifying pace and spent his short first stint in the queue behind Alonso. Felt he’d extracted the most from the car on a weekend when tyre warm-up troubles made his one-lap pace a big weakness, hence the three runs in Q1. The Williams didn’t quite have the pace to score points and Albon, therefore, did a good job to finish two places outside the top 10. But he went off at Turn 13 on his final Q1 lap after hitting dust pulled onto the track by Stroll and ended up 19th. He repassed Alonso into and through Turn 3, but ended the first lap 12th. While he was not as quick as Tsunoda through qualifying, he did enough to close to 0.084s off his team-mate and salvage 11th in a car that was still suffering from understeer. Never ran higher than 16th and was unable to make any progress from the lower reaches of the midfield, finishing ahead only of Latifi. Although he still beat Perez having passed him on lap 61, he was relegated from fifth-on-the-road to eighth by the penalty as his pace wasn’t strong enough to build a big enough gap over the leading midfielders. Had the pace for pole position having finally found the strong front end he required in Q3. Was a step behind Hamiton through qualifying, exemplified by having to use two sets of softs during Q2 after struggling with the Pirellis on the first run which left him with only one fresh set for Q3. Emerged as Verstappen’s strongest challenger on a planned one-stopper, but the timing of the first VSC denied both Mercedes drivers the chance to see how their strategy played out against Verstappen.

Who were the winners and losers this weekend, then? We take a look now… Winner – Max Verstappen. The Dutchman is now 109 points clear in the championship and ...

He came home in 8th in the end and admitted the race was ‘a mess’ which seems about a perfect way to describe it. He was in Q3 on Saturday, though an issue with the car stopped him setting a lap time right at the end of the session, and he managed to bring home a point. Sainz saw a botched pit-stop early on in the race rather sum up his day, with that costing him time and then he was given a time penalty for an unsafe release from the pits later on in the race. [Max Verstappen](https://www.givemesport.com/max-verstappen) sent the locals back home happy as he took victory, whilst [Mercedes](https://www.givemesport.com/mercedes) potentially missed out on a victory after opting against bringing in [Lewis Hamilton](https://www.givemesport.com/lewis-hamilton) for soft tyres in the closing stages after a Safety Car. [Check out our full Max Verstappen range in the Give Me Sport shop!](https://shop.givemesport.com/products/verstappen-dutch-master-tee) The Dutchman is now 109 points clear in the championship and it’s a matter of when he makes it a second world title compared to if.

Lewis Hamilton felt Mercedes had let a win slip through its fingers at the Dutch Grand Prix, but it's not certain he would have beaten Max Verstappen to ...

I knew when everyone was on the soft tyre behind me, I knew that there was no way I was going to hold them behind me." It's a shame the race didn't play out, putting former championship rivals Hamilton and Verstappen in a straight fight for the first time this season, but it was also promising for Mercedes to be back in contention for victory. Then the virtual safety car came out and we switched to the hard tyres because of how we'd seen it performing, which again just protected track position for Max." "The VSC made life a little trickier because the pace of the Mercedes seemed pretty strong on the hard tyre," he said. As it turned out, Yuki Tsunoda stopping on track and causing a virtual safety car presented Red Bull with the opportunity to complete its second pit stop and retain the lead. The choice of whether to pit under the resulting safety car was posed to all teams, and Red Bull, knowing the pace advantage the fresh tyres would offer, decided to sacrifice the lead of the race to put Verstappen on softs. The Japanese driver initially stopped on track believing a rear wheel was not correctly fitted to his car after his pit stop and started loosening his seat belts to get out. "I don't think that on a par with the same tyre we could have overtaken the Red Bull with the straight-line speed. The race result in Zandvoort followed the same trend, with Verstappen coming out on top, but it's unfair to accuse Mercedes of failing to learn from its mistakes in a race where it defied expectations to put itself in the mix for victory in the first place. The point, however, is somewhat redundant, as it very quickly became clear that Hamilton's lack of pace on his medium tyres in the following laps would have made him a sitting duck for Verstappen on softs at some point before the chequered flag. In the final 12 laps after a safety car restart, he dropped from first place to fourth as Mercedes took a gamble on tyre strategy that didn't pay off. The Dutch Grand Prix was the closest Mercedes has come to winning a Formula One race this season, yet the team fell just short of beating Max Verstappen and Red Bull.

Max Verstappen's points lead in the Formula 1 drivers' standings now looks more commanding than at any stage in last year's title battle after winning the ...

OPINION: Audi's arrival in Formula 1 for 2026 was confirmed on the eve of the Belgian Grand Prix. After a flawless Belgian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen and Red Bull were given a tougher time on the opening day at Zandvoort. Just 0.021 seconds had split Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix on Saturday.

The Dutch Grand Prix resembled a three-day rave interspersed with occasional motor racing, though the on-track action didn't disappoint the lively crowd.

[Daniel Ricciardo](/daniel-ricciardo/) and Lewis Hamilton. In its second year back on the calendar, it may still have a few problems to sort out, but the atmosphere was nothing short of spectacular. For a brief moment I stopped and remembered the pandemic, which temporarily made this kind of event impossible, which grounded me around the noise. [Lewis Hamilton](/lewis-hamilton/) at Silverstone. I briefly saw McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl and we tried in vain to exchange words over the cacophony. [This finally provoked complaints, and we were met by some of the promoters at the track and escorted through the crowds to some buggies. Later I walked back into the motorhome paddock (which in Zandvoort is split into two) the music started blaring from around the circuit. Though the organisation was somewhat chaotic, the shuttles had at least proved reliable for timings, and got me home in 30 minutes the night before. Fans had already descended on the circuit and the sea of orange was a challenge to fight through. [I was aware there were three media shuttles scheduled for the morning, 6:30 am, 8:30 am and 10:30 and two in the evening at 19:00 and 21:00. Smiling as he casually strode in, sat down and removed his sunglasses, I noticed how intensely he listened in the relative quiet of Red Bull’s vast motorhome. Hamilton was leaning on the bar worktop, casually chatting with his team mate George Russell, as the sliding doors parted and we entered.