Max Verstappen won the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix in a dominant performance, much to the delight of the orange clad legions that swarmed across the circuit. The Red Bull Honda driver finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in what was a largely incident free race.

The main talking point from the 72 lap Grand Prix was the issuing of team instructions for McLaren and Mercedes. Lando Norris profited from team orders at McLaren after teammate Daniel Ricciardo was asked to move aside and ultimately snare a 10th place finish just ahead of the Australian. At Mercedes Valtteri Bottas was asked to do two things by the team; maintain the race lead while holding off Verstappen and not to push for the fastest lap when given fresh rubber later in the race. The Finn was unable to do either, though he did move aside to allow his teammate past without delay.

It is perhaps the biggest indication to date of Bottas’ future with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team.

Verstappen led most of the field for the formation lap as a thick orange hue from strategically positioned flares set the tone for the day. Nicholas Latifi and Sergio Perez remained in the pit lane after changes had been made overnights. Latifi had a new gearbox fitted after his qualifying crash, while Red Bull Honda elected to change the power unit in Perez’s car with one of a different specification in preparation for Monza.

The #33 Red Bull Honda lined up on the grid pointing towards the apex of Turn 1, a clear indication that Verstappen intended to cover any move from Hamilton at the start. He did exactly that and led Hamilton, Bottas and Gasly into Turn 1 while the Ferraris and Alpines battled for team superiority. Ricciardo dropped a place off the line to Russell after an issue with his preferred hand clutch and then came under pressure from Stroll. Verstappen steamed away to a 1.7 second lead at the end of the opening lap while Antonio Giovinazzi dropped three places to 10th after incidents with Sainz and then Alonso.

“Ricciardo is smoking and dropping oil,” Russell told his engineer as he sat two places behind the McLaren on Lap 2. The car had a noticeable wasp of smoke that drifted from the rear exhaust, which was later explained as an overfilled oil tank and not a mechanical problem. By lap 9 the smoke had disappeared as had Verstappen who had opened a 3 second gap to Hamilton with Bottas a further 3 seconds behind.

Tyre management became the primary concern, especially for the top 10 from qualifying who had started on the soft compound. Drivers were asked to manage the tyre, which effectively saw most running laps that optimised tyre life at the expense of maximum speed. It resulted in a request from Ocon to pass his teammate, complaining that he was much faster. Alonso’s pace allowed Ricciardo to threaten Ocon for 8th but realistically there was no opportunity to pass.

Hamilton set his fastest time to date on lap 11 after a pit call to increase the pace, which Red Bull Honda interpreted as an intended two stop strategy. It proved to be the correct assumption when Hamilton stopped for the medium compound tyre on lap 21. Red Bull covered the move with a stop for Verstappen at the end of lap 21. Valtteri Bottas inherited the race lead with a 10 second margin back to the Red Bull Honda. That gap was forecast to evaporate within 7 laps as Bottas laboured on with the soft tyre.

“So this is for the race win and you are defending. I’ll leave you to it,” Bottas was told by his race engineer as Verstappen closed to within a second on lap 29. Bottas managed to hold on for one more lap before Verstappen cruised past down the main straight on lap 31. That brief moment of resistance allowed Hamilton to close within a second of Verstappen and Bottas duly moved aside for his teammate to pass.

“He’s getting super lucky with traffic man,” Hamilton said to his team as the gap to Verstappen gradually extended to 1.5 seconds. on lap 32.

Bottas remained in 3rd after his stop on lap 32, while Daniel Ricciardo dropped a lap to the leader after his stop and fell to 12th behind Norris, who had started on the medium tyre, and Perez. Leclerc sat in 4th from Gasly and Sainz, while Alonso and Ocon remained unchanged in 7th and 8th.

Sebastian Vettel spun at Turn 3 on lap 38 as Bottas approached. The Finn lost 1.5 seconds in the sector as he slowed to avoid the Aston Martin and flat spotted his right front tyre in the process.

Hamilton began to lose ground to the leader and the team responded with a second pit stop on lap 40, with another set of new medium compound tyres at their disposal. The move didn’t impress their driver when Hamilton emerged amongst a group of cars that included Stroll, Russell and Ricciardo. Red Bull responded and Verstappen stopped for a new set of hard tyres on the following lap.

By lap 44 Verstappen held a 3 second lead, with Hamilton conceding that their strategy hadn’t worked.

“Doesn’t seem to be an advantage. Called our bluff too soon,” Hamilton said to the team. “It’s a long way to go on this tyre man.”

Norris ran over 40 laps on the medium tyre and returned to the circuit immediately behind Ricciardo on lap 44. The team later asked the Australian to move aside for his teammate, which he duly did in the hope that both cars would end up in the points. It failed to materialise when Norris found it impossible to pass the Alpines ahead.

Hamilton had closed the gap to Verstappen to a little over a second on lap 55 when his engineer suggested that he manage the tyres and effectively settle for second place and the fastest lap of the race, though Hamilton would have none of the suggestion.

“So don’t race? I pushing to close this gap man, come on!” Hamilton responded.

“Okay, copy that Lewis. We’re happy with what you are doing then I suppose, let’s crack on,” the team replied.

Lando Norris and Sergio Perez were fortunate to escape an incident between the pair on lap 67  when Perez looked to pass the McLaren along the Pit Straight. Norris forced the Red Bull Honda wide at Turn 1. There were multiple ‘touches’ that ripped shards of bodywork from the cars and temporarily lifted the left rear wheel of the McLaren as Perez finally gained the upper hand.

“That was not very fair,” Perez said of the move to his team.

Valtteri Bottas was told to pit on lap 68 as his tyres reached a critical point and returned on the soft tyre and was soon told; “So you are on the soft, we are going to plus 1. You are not going for fastest,”

“Why not?” Bottas queried.

“So Lewis will have a free stop again,” came the reply.

 Bottas then asked, “Why did we stop then?”

“Precautionary for tyre vibrations,” the team explained.

Bottas appeared to have ignored the instruction when he then recorded the fastest time in sectors 1 and 2. He soon received a call from James Vowles, the Head of Strategy for Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1.

“Valtteri, it’s James. Please abort the fastest lap attempt before the end of the lap.”

Bottas obliged but still recorded the fastest lap of the race.

Hamilton stopped on the penultimate lap for a set of softs and one last attempt at the fastest lap.

Max Verstappen went on to win the Dutch Grand Prix, taking the chequered flag under a gantry and pit straight which exploded in a plume of pyrotechnics. The fans were not to be outdone and created a second unofficial display as bright orange smoke billowed into the sky.

Hamilton did regain the fastest time during that final lap and took second place, with Bottas 3rd. Gasly, Leclerc, Alonso, Sainz, Perez, Ocon and Norris were the top ten. while Ricciardo ended just outside the points in 11th.

“It’s incredible to win here today on another home track and it feels great to take the lead in the Driver’s Championship again,” Verstappen said to Red Bull Media. “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, Lewis was really putting the pressure on and both Mercedes’ had really good pace but we managed to have that three second buffer when we needed it and I think that was very important. 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.”

For Daniel Ricciardo the result was less than he had hope for and suffered ultimately by playing the team game.

“Difficult race. Coming up to the line, I went to pull the clutch and it wasn’t working, so my preferred clutch paddle had an issue,” Ricciardo told McLaren Media. “I did the start with my other hand and that was a big part of losing a position to Russell off the line. But we recovered well and I got back past Russell and Giovinazzi. We actually gained a position on lap one when I thought we were going to lose a few, so that was great. We were then just stuck behind the Alpines. They were saving the tyres and I was just trying to stay with them. Once they opened it up, I didn’t have their pace.We put the Hard tyre on and were trying to get into a bit of a rhythm. We also tried to execute a team strategy to maximise points, which cost me some race time. It was hard to get going after that and I think ultimately the pace wasn’t that good.”

Photos: Red Bull content pool

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Qualifying Dutch Grand Prix – Verstappen Rewards The Fans…

Max Verstappen has taken pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix, much to the relief of the orange legions that stood in adulation of their Red Bull Honda hero. Lewis Hamilton overcame an engine issue and a lack of Friday track time to claim second, with current Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 teammate Valtteri Bottas in third.

It was an afternoon of mixed emotions as many of the Saturday superheroes and expected front runners failed to meet expectations on a circuit that constantly surprised as the North Sea nearby huffed and puffed wind gusts from variable directions pushing fine mists of sand and changing grip levels in the blink of an eye.

Practice 3 brought a hint of things to come when Carlos Sainz lost control of his Ferrari and clouted the wall at Turn 3.

“At the beginning I didn’t know what had happened,” Sainz said. “Then I had a bit of an analysis, a bit of a cool-down in my head, and after what I’ve seen in quali, it’s very clear now that centimetres off line there’s clearly less grip than online there’s a bit of sand. I missed the apex by maybe 20cms in that lap, and I and you can see maybe that I pull up a bit of dust, and I think that is enough to create an accident at this circuit.”

The lack of adhesion off-line and tight layout meant that team strategy in getting a driver into clear air was the key to a fast qualifying lap at Zandvoort. Sainz was fortunate that the gearbox on his Ferrari had escaped unharmed and waited for mechanics to complete laser scans of the repairs before he was sent out on track.

It soon became evident that qualifying was going to be close, very close. The usual ploy of the front running teams choosing the harder compound tyres as then breeze through Q1 was pushed aside by unusually close lap times. The red walled soft tyre was the weapon of choice for all bar Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 in the opening stanza of Q1, though they soon swapped to the softer tyres in the final laps.

As the session dropped into the final 3 minutes, Daniel Ricciardo and George Russell sat on the cusp of elimination as less than a second separated the top 15.They sat just ahead of Lance Stroll, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica and Nikita Mazepin. Kubica had excelled on his sudden, unexpected return to F1 with Alfa Romeo after Kimi Raikkonen had tested positive to COVID19 overnight. The Finn left to bide his time isolating back in his hotel room.

The difficulties in passing and an unfortunate queue of cars all trying to maximise the gap to the driver ahead saw a very unusual order at the end of Q1 as both Williams made it through, with Nicholas Latifi in 6th, while Lando Norris just survived the cut in 15th position. Sergio Perez, Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica, Michael Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin were the five to miss out on Q2. Vettel’s final flying lap was obstructed by the two Haas entries as he tried to weave past.

Track conditions had improved by the start of Q2 and Verstappen was amongst the first to set a fast time. His lap 1:09.071 was a second faster than his best from Q1 and clearly faster than Russell, Norris and Latifi. After the close order in Q1, the second session saw the #33 6/10ths clear of Hamilton in second and over 1.2 seconds to Russell in 5th. Leclerc, Sainz, Gasly, Alonso, Stroll, Tsunoda, Ocon and Ricciardo had not yet set a time.

With 5 minutes left of Q2 Verstappen remained in P1 some 3/10ths ahead of Leclerc. Gasly, Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, Sainz, Ocon, Alonso and Giovinazzi completed the top 10. Norris sat uncharacteristically down in 13th over 4/10ths of a second away from a place in Q3.

“So tricky with the wind,” Russell told his engineer as the session approached the half-way point. It was a comment that foretold what lay ahead for the Williams driver. His second flying lap was faster until a small error saw the Williams spin at the entry to the last corner and back into the tyre wall. Russell managed to keep the engine running and toured back to the pits as the red flag was displayed with 3 minutes 54 seconds left.

Nicholas Latifi brought out the second red flag of the session when he hit the outside wall. He had just swept around the outside of a slow moving Hamilton when the rear snapped out and spun the Williams hard into the turn 8 wall with 1 minute 48 seconds left. The incident brought a premature end to Q2 and consigned Russell, Stroll, Norris, Latifi and Tsunoda to the garages for the final part of qualifying.

It was Verstappen once again who set the standard with a first flying lap with a 1:08.923, 3/10th better than both Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 cars and over 1.5 seconds faster than Ricciardo and Ocon in 9th and 10th respectively. Verstappen improved his best in the dying moments of qualifying, with his 1:08.885 a little over 3/100ths better than Hamilton in second. Bottas, Gasly, Leclerc, Sainz, Giovinazzi, Ocon, Alonso and Ricciardo finished qualifying in that order.

“It feels great to be on pole position and of course it makes it even more satisfying when it’s at one of your home races,” Verstappen told Red Bull Media. “Everyone was going crazy each time I crossed the line and it’s amazing to see people having the time of their lives in the grandstands. Qualifying was quite tricky with the red flags, you could see there was no room for error which is nice and makes it more exciting, but my lap itself was good. There were two occasions where I lost some time, first with a double upshift coming out of Turn 3 where it is very bumpy, and then my DRS didn’t open coming out of the last corner which we need to look into, but fortunately the lap was enough for pole. Of course at this track it’s important to be starting from out in front because it’s very difficult to overtake here so the start will be key.”

McLaren were left scratching their heads after Daniel Ricciardo was unable to improve on his time in Q3 and Norris was eliminated earlier in Q2.

“75 per cent of quali, in Q1 and Q2, was really good relative to where we thought we were,” Ricciardo told McLaren Media. “There were a lot of things that felt good, and the lap times were good. It came to me quite naturally and normally, and I was able to improve a little bit in each corner. I felt comfortable. In Q3 I felt like I was lacking grip from Turn One, so it was a bit more of a struggle from then on. We don’t really know why yet. The track might have changed and maybe we just missed something, but we’ll look into that and try to find an answer. It’s frustrating as Q3 dictates the grid and that was our worst run in qualifying. There’re some positives to take from today, but still some unknowns. We’ll keep working at it.”

“Not the day I wanted or that we were expecting – I just didn’t do the best job,” Norris explained to McLaren Media. “I didn’t feel too confident in qualifying to hook it all up and put it together. It’s probably the closest qualifying we’ve had all year. It’s a shame as this is the race we really needed to be strong, but we just didn’t manage it. We also didn’t get that last opportunity to try again because of the red flag.”

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