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Formula 1: Max Verstappen with home win at the Grand Prix of the Netherlands

2021-09-05T17:30:27.188Z


In excess and strategically, Mercedes wanted to get Max Verstappen - and failed. The Dutchman set a monument for himself at home. In the back rows, the rookies Schumacher and Masepin contested each other.


Enlarge image

When Max Verstappen climbed onto the top step with the Dutch flag, King Willem-Alexander threw his arms up and cheered

Photo:

Formula 1 / imago images / ANP

Flying Dutchman:

The King of the Netherlands had come to Zandvoort, but the roles were reversed on this Sunday: Willem-Alexander was in the audience and applauded 23-year-old Max Verstappen, who crowned himself King of Zandvoort not far from the North Sea beach. When the Red Bull driver was the first to cross the finish line after 71 laps and was the first Dutchman to win the Dutch Grand Prix, the fireworks on the edge of the track also exploded the orange Bengalos of the 70,000 fans who raised their folk hero a little later cheered up on the podium. Verstappen, wrapped in a Dutch flag, looked a little touched behind his mouth guard, at least until he choked on the sparkling wine that his toughest competitor Lewis Hamilton poured over his head.

The result:

"The expectations were so high, it wasn't easy to meet them," said Verstappen after the race, but he still delivered.

With first place ahead of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in the two Mercedes, the Red Bull driver regained the championship lead and is now with 224.5 points ahead of Hamilton (221.5).

Read the race report here.

The start:

Verstappen, who already won qualifying, also prevailed at the start of the race and turned into the first corner as the clear leader.

Behind him Hamilton, who lost another meter on Verstappen when accelerating out of the right bend.

The Red Bull driver was 1.7 seconds ahead of Hamilton after the first lap.

With that, the Briton was already outside the overtaking window of a maximum of one second, with Bottas behind.

A thousand times in the lead:

While Hamilton did not come close to Verstappen, he drove the 1000th lap of his Formula 1 career, which he began at the age of 17.

Mercedes tries everything:

On lap 21, Mercedes drew the only trump card they initially seemed to have and pitted Hamilton before Verstappen. However, it took the crew almost a second longer than the Verstappen team, who came in a lap later to change tires. At least Hamilton was able to shorten the gap from well over three seconds to under two. Now Mercedes drew the second card: Bottas should give the Verstappen blocker. Mercedes had left the Finn on the track with worn tires. On the other hand, Verstappen was on his own at the front, as team-mate Sergio Pérez had started from the pit lane after a bad qualifying and had to work his way up gradually. The Finnish defensive wall did not last long,At the end of the banked curve on lap 31, Bottas had to let Verstappen pass, Hamilton also passed, but immediately lost time on the leader in the Red Bull. "He was lucky with traffic," he radioed.

"Complains he is about something?":

Ever sparked Hamilton and his team, following lively back and forth.

On lap 39, the Brit headed for the pits for the second time, again in front of Verstappen, and again he came out in traffic.

Red Bull reacted again immediately and defended the lead.

Hamilton complained about the tires (he got medium, Verstappen hard), about the speed of the Red Bull and about the strategy - he shortened the gap to the leader to one and a half seconds.

On lap 61, however, Verstappen pulled away again and the race was decided.

The eventual winner asked his team about his competitor's state of mind via radio: "Is he complaining about anything?" Asked Verstappen.

13,159 days:

Formula 1 last made a guest appearance in Zandvoort 36 years ago. Circuit Park Zandvoort was rebuilt at two key points for the comeback. In the sections of the Hugenholtzbocht and Arie Luyendijkbocht there are now steep turns with 19 and 18 degrees respectively - unique in the current racing calendar. The pilots can stay on the accelerator longer, this is supposed to increase the probability of overtaking maneuvers at the end of the following straight. The course is around 200 meters from the North Sea coast and leads through the dunes - what looks picturesque is a fact that the activists of "Extinction Rebellion" criticize and accuse Formula 1 of destroying nature. The Grand Prix in Zandvoort was only allowed to be driven with the help of the courts,after complaints about the encroachment on nature and the increased pollution were dismissed.

Stress in the lower ranks:

After Haas rookies Mick Schumacher and Nikita Masepin had already clashed after qualifying (Masepin had felt unfairly treated by Schumacher because of an overtaking maneuver in the warm-up lap), it crashed again on Sunday - and this time on the track. In the early stages of the race there was contact on the start-finish straight when Masepin tried to overtake Schumacher in the direction of the pit lane entrance and a bollard (the scene can be seen here in the video). As a result, the front wing on Schumacher's Haas had to be changed. After the race, both of them wedged against each other again: »That was not correct from my point of view. It's more his thing to scold the media. I'm staying out of it and will clarify this internally with the team, ”said Schumacher about the duel.Masepin replied, “I found it very hard and it should always be that way. There are no problems, but I want to be ahead. "

With material from dpa and sid

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-09-05

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