Max Verstappen wins Dutch Grand Prix in front of adoring home crowd
Max Verstappen has won the Dutch Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas as Red Bull dominated the fast and tight Zandvoort circuit.
Max Verstappen celebrates on the podium at Zandvoort. (Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool)
Verstappen started his home grand prix in pole position and established his lead early, pulling out of DRS range from the chasing Mercedes pair behind.
A hard-fought strategic battle ensued as Mercedes attempted to use both Hamilton and Bottas to catch the Dutchman.
"It’s incredible to win here today on another home track and it feels great to take the lead in the Drivers’ Championship again," said Verstappen.
"Of course, the expectations were very high coming into the weekend and it’s never easy to fulfil that, but the whole crowd has been incredible and I am so happy to win here."
"It was quite a tough race"
Verstappen celebrates in front of his home crowd. (Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool)
Hamilton attempted an undercut twice, but it became clear that the team had moved too swiftly and would not have the tyre life to catch Verstappen.
"Lewis was really putting the pressure on and both Mercedes’ had really good pace," said Verstappen, "but we managed to have that three-second buffer when we needed it and I think that was very important."
"We can be really pleased with the whole Team performance – we made the right calls and we managed the race really well."
"72 laps around this track is cool, especially in front of all these fans – they were incredible throughout the whole race."
"I’ve never experienced anything like this before in my life."
"I will, of course, celebrate at home this evening, but Monza is just around the corner and the championship fight is tight, so I want to make sure we perform at our best.”
Max Verstappen started on pole alongside rival Lewis Hamilton. (LAT Images)
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner celebrated his team's attempts to negate Mercedes' pincer strategy.
"We knew with the strategic options that Mercedes had that they were going to split the strategy and they did exactly that."
"It was also crucial for Max to make that pass on Valtteri quickly and then after that, we were able to cover Lewis."
"The Team did everything they could today to make sure Max had a smooth race and he did everything that he needed."
Verstappen marked his 1000th lap in the lead of a Formula 1 race, while Hamilton earned his 175th career podium.
Verstappen now leads the World Drivers' Championship on 224.5 points over Hamilton on 221.5 points.
Verstappen leads the field into turn 1 at the Dutch Grand Prix. (Jiri Krenek)
"What a race and what a crowd, honestly, it's been an amazing weekend," said Hamilton after the race.
"Max did a great job so congrats to him."
"I gave it everything I had out there, but they were just too quick for us this weekend."
Hamilton swapped to a scrubbed medium tyre for his third stint, and complained to the team that the move may have been made too early in the race.
"I think even if we'd have got everything right today with the traffic, the pit stops and the strategy, it'd still have been tough to get by them."
“We didn't get those elements spot on, but either way, we pushed as much as we could and we'll take it offline, debrief and see how we could have improved."
"We'll be fighting right to the end. It was an incredibly difficult race out there, physically and mentally I think it was one of the toughest, but it's an amazing track."
Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas celebrate on the podium (Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool)
The six-time world champion made a late-race pit stop to steal the championship point for fastest lap on the final lap.
"The fastest lap at the end was one of my favourite parts of the race, it's an incredible track to drive on low fuel, this is one of my favourite tracks now and I've had a great time here in Holland, so I'm looking forward to coming back next year."
Valtteri Bottas returned to third in the drivers' championship, with his 125th points finish in Formula 1.
"It was quite a quiet race for me but as a team, we scored solid points and there's been an amazing atmosphere here," he said.
"Before the race, there was so much energy from the crowd, and it's a really cool track to drive." "Very hard to overtake on, but good fun."
"I was pushing hard out there but we committed to the one-stop strategy quite early on, and that needed too much management really and proved tricky."
"We were lacking a bit of speed here compared to Red Bull but Monza is a completely different circuit so I'm hopeful we can compete there."
Lewis Hamilton celebrates his race on the podium. (LAT Images)
Mercedes maintains its slim lead in the Constructors' Championship, just 12 points ahead of Red Bull.
Mercedes Team Principal and CEO Toto Wolff was positive, looking ahead to the return of sprint qualifying at Monza.
"I'm sure it's going to be another close weekend and an exciting fight."
"It's a very different track and the Sprint Qualifying format returns, so we could see a bit of a different story."
"Let's see how it goes."
