It was another banner weekend for Oracle Red Bull Racing and driver Max Verstappen, who started on pole for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix and scored the victory.
It was Verstappen’s ninth consecutive Formula 1 win of the season, tying Sebastian Vettel for the longest streak in F-1 history.
“It’s incredible,” said Verstappen. “Also today, they didn’t make it easy for us with the weather, to make all the time the right calls. I’m incredibly proud. I already had goosebumps when they were playing the national anthem before the start.
“Even with all the bad weather, the rain, the fans were still going at it, so an incredible atmosphere.”
Strategy came into play at the start of the event as rain unleashed on Circuit Zandvoort. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez pit immediately with a handful of other drivers to switch to intermediate tires, while Verstappen and the other group of drivers pit later. The drivers who pit immediately rose up the leaderboard, putting Perez on point.
Once rain eased up and the track dried, Verstappen drove back to the lead. Despite rain falling and a red flag coming in the latter stages of the event, Verstappen survived for triumph.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finished runner-up, his best result since the Canadian Grand Prix more than two months ago. Following Alonso was Alpine’s Pierre Gasly rounding out the podium.
Perez finished fourth while Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz ended his day in fifth position. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton rebounded to finish sixth after an error in qualifying negated him to a 13th-place starting position.
“I didn’t really know how today was going to go – last night, I was wracking my brain about where we went wrong in qualifying and how we ended up P13, and how to climb back up,” Hamilton said. “I wanted to start the race on an offset tire compound, but then it turned out I was the only one in the field on a different tire – and then the rain came.
“As a team, we made the wrong decision and paid the price, coming out last. After that, I just got my head down and I was chasing; it was a great example that when you fall or stumble, just get back up and keep trying,” Hamilton continued.
“Each time I pitted, I came out behind, and kept chasing and chasing. I was really happy – I passed the McLaren, for example, which isn’t easy at this track. And then at the end, I just needed DRS to pass Sainz, because I was quicker but didn’t have the speed on the straight to do it. But overall, it’s a feeling of what could have been: if we’d made different calls, we had the pace to challenge the top two.
“We weren’t far off in the dry – and it would have been good to be in that fight.”
Lando Norris, Alex Albon, Oscar Piastri and Esteban Ocon completed the top 10.
Haas F-1’s Nico Hulkenberg placed 12th with teammate Kevin Magnussen in 14th.