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The Ferrari crew retrieves the forgotten fourth tire when Carlos Sainz stops
Photo: Christian Bruna/AP
Scene of the race:
Go to the pits, everything is ready, tire change, descent.
A pit stop in Formula 1 is usually unspectacular.
Or you screw it up badly – like Ferrari: Carlos Sainz made his first pit stop at the Dutch Grand Prix and then chaos broke out.
It took a moment, and every second counts, for the Ferrari mechanics to realize they had only three tires ready instead of four.
A rear tire was missing.
Some grabbed their heads, one dragged the missing fourth tire with a delay.
"My God," Ferrari driver Sainz yelled over the radio.
He started the race third.
Now he fell far behind - and ended up eighth.
Result of the race:
Tenth victory in the 15th World Championship race, 109 points ahead – Red Bull driver Max Verstappen underpins his dominance in Formula 1. He won his home race in front of 100,000 fans in Zandvoort and further extended his World Championship lead .
George Russell in the Mercedes was second, third place went to Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari.
Read the race report here.
The start:
Verstappen started the race from pole position – and he and all the other drivers in the field started well from their starting positions, there were no major position changes.
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, who touched the barrier on the second lap and found his way back onto the track over the gravel, caused the first excitement.
Mick Schumacher's teammate continued the competition from last place.
How can this happen?
"It was a mess," said Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto about Sainz's botched tire change.
"The laps are so short here that our mechanics weren't prepared yet." That's not all.
After his tire change, Sainz ran over an impact wrench.
Whether this broke remained open.
According to the Sky expert and ex-driver Ralf Schumacher, the cost of such a special device is around 150,000 US dollars.
The pursuer capitulates:
Shortly before the start of the race, Charles Leclerc was seen in the TV broadcast crouching in his box next to a physiotherapist.
The Monegasque, who started this Formula 1 year so strongly, didn't seem very determined.
There was great hope at Ferrari that after the tight qualifying and a mini deficit to Verstappen, they could finally attack.
World Championship runner-up Leclerc started the race from second place, team-mate Sainz from third place.
Together they should push.
But with the botched tire change at Sainz, the plan was gone early.
Halfway through the race, Leclerc said over the radio, "I don't think we can do Plan C either." Whatever that looked like, it sounded like a surrender.
Silver is the new orange – at least
for a while: The Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russel took their time for their pit stop.
So it happened that the Dutch audience saw Silver Arrows driving at the top for a long time, but not Verstappen.
In the end, Red Bull's Oranje driver couldn't be beaten this time either.
Ferrari destroyed their chances themselves, the Mercedes drivers were much faster than last time, but it wasn't enough to attack the championship leader.
Game over:
The final phase of the race showed how unbeatable Verstappen's Red Bull is at the moment.
The safety car came out on lap 60 and the cars were close together again.
When the restart was supposed to start again, Hamilton led the field.
Then Verstappen gave the opponent no chance and increased his lead lap by lap.
Almost no racing action:
Little action was expected at the Zandvoort track, and for the most part that's what happened.
A highlight: Hamilton fought nice duels with Sergio Pérez on lap 38, in the end the Mercedes driver was faster than the opponent in the Red Bull. However, the Brit almost suddenly lost the place again because Sebastian Vettel was suddenly disrupting the traffic.
The German driver should have moved to the side to be lapped, but initially he didn't make room, apparently he had overlooked the blue flag.
Mick is Quick, but not his team
: he made it into Q3 on Saturday and finished qualifying with a strong eighth place.
There is a lot of talk these days about the future of Mick Schumacher, his racing team Haas wants to watch the upcoming races closely and then decide how and whether the son of record world champion Michael Schumacher should continue.
One thing is clear: the fact that he was 13th at the end of the race and therefore weaker than after qualifying was not due to him alone.
His crew needed an enormous amount of time for both pit stops.
The jack got stuck twice.
It is difficult for Mick Schumacher to prove himself for a cockpit in the new season.