Verstappen Wins Damp Dutch Grand Prix

AUGUST 27: Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing and Second placed Fernando Alonso of Spain and Aston Martin F1 Team celebrate on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of The Netherlands at Circuit Zandvoort on August 27, 2023 in Zandvoort, Netherlands. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

ZANDVOORT, Netherlands – The practice sessions and qualifying of Friday and Saturday were behind Formula 1 teams and drivers on Sunday ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix at the Circuit Zandvoort, where Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen lined up on the pole looking to tie a record set by Sebastien Vettel 10 years ago of winning nine races in a row with a whole host of other drivers hoping to put a stop to his domination.

With Friday’s beautiful weather during both practice sessions and Saturday’s rain-dampened final practice and qualifying sessions, it was a toss-up about how Mother Nature would show up in the Dutch Grand Prix. And for sure, Mother Nature showed up during this race, which made an exciting strategy for team strategists across the pit wall.

The grid was not vastly changed following the penalty report the day prior. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda incurred a 3-place grid penalty following his impending of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton during qualifying. Haas elected to start Kevin Magnussen on the pit lane following a gearbox and power unit change. Meanwhile, Liam Lawson was about to begin his first-ever F1 Grand Prix, standing in for an injured Daniel Ricciardo.

Opening tire choices for the field were split into two strategies. Two drivers, Hamilton and Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg, started on the Medium Compound tire while the rest of the field started on the Soft compound tires.

With the field set, Verstappen led McLaren’s Lando Norris around for the formation laps as clouds started to set in over the track with the expectation of incoming rain. With the field gridded up, the lights went out, and Verstappen got away quite cleanly while the rest of the field sorted it out behind him. But as he was getting away, the rain started to fall and get into the territory of switching over to the Intermediate compound tires for the wet track.

In the opening melee, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso made impressive moves, getting up to and around the McLaren of Norris to get into second place, trailing Verstappen. Once the field returned to the track for Lap 1, a small portion of the field led by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez completed the switch to the Intermediate tires.

Joining Perez came Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Lawson, and the Haas of Magnussen. The rest of the field stayed out to risk it in the ever-increasing wet conditions.

While drivers such as Mercedes’ George Russell and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri attempted to wait as long as possible before pitting, they started to tumble down the order. Going into the pits at the right time, Perez grabbed the lead as the rest of the field either pitted or sunk down the order, followed by Guanyu and Gasly, with Verstappen down in fourth, making a charge.

Verstappen made quick work of Guanyu and Gasly as he set his sights on his teammate in the lead, albeit 10 seconds behind. The field had stabilized further down, with Alonso doing his best to hold off fellow countryman Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

Shortly afterward, with the rain done and the sun and blue skies starting to hit the track, it was time for teams to switch back to the dry tires. Verstappen happened to get the earlier pit than his teammate and was able to retake the lead once Perez went down pit lane. Behind them, Williams had kept the impressive Alex Albon on his race-started soft tires and he had kept himself on the road.

However, the chaos had not ended as Williams’ Logan Sargeant went off at Turn 8 and severely damaged his car, thus bringing out the Virtual Safety Car and the full-on Safety Car. This gave it a chance to sort things out. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and AlphaTuari’s Tsunoda had worked themselves to the points. Norris had fallen out of the points after starting second, joined by both Hamilton and Russell, who had gotten some weird strategy calls from the Mercedes Pit Wall.

Soon, the SC returned to the pit lane, and Verstappen was again set off from the field, slowly pulling away from his teammate and Alonso. Down the order, impressive battles were forming and happening as drivers worked their way up the order as Norris and Hamilton attempted to fight their way up the order.

In the middle of the action down the order, Ferrari called in Leclerc after some damage picked up on lap one of the race was too severe and called him into the pits to retire the car, joining Sargeant out of the race.

Another round of pit stops came while drivers and teams noted darker clouds coming in over the North Sea. But that didn’t stop teams from bolting on another set of dry tires for another stint. Norris and Sainz kicked off the round of stops, along with Albon making his first stop of the day, setting the stage for the rest of the leaders.

Red Bull pitted Perez first, then called in Verstappen four laps later to complete a set of calm pit stops. However, drama hit the Aston Martin pit as a sticky wheel slowed down the stop for Alonso, losing valuable track position while on a quest for his first podium since the Canadian Grand Prix.

Alonso set off to fight back into the podium places and quickly got past Sainz to get back on the podium as Tsunoda tried to wait out the weather and started falling down the order. Russell and Hamilton were on impressive recovery jobs, making their way into the points, including a scary moment that saw Russell slide in a high-speed section and save it right before his teammate.

Soon after the Dutch Grand Prix got under the final 20 laps remaining, the chance of rain went from a matter of if it would come to when it would come, as most teams, such as Red Bull, said they were expecting rain in about 10 minutes. That expectation was just about on the nose as the dry track was soon replaced with a downpour that sent teams scrambling to figure out what to do.

AUGUST 27: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 leads Fernando Alonso of Spain driving the (14) Aston Martin AMR23 Mercedes and Sergio Perez of Mexico driving the (11) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 at the restart during the F1 Grand Prix of The Netherlands at Circuit Zandvoort on August 27, 2023 in Zandvoort, Netherlands. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)

Red Bull led a majority of the field with Perez with an immediate switch back to the Intermediate tires, with Verstappen leading Alonso, Albon and Ocon staying out an extra lap before considering it too treacherous, bringing their cars into the pits to be serviced. Soon, all but one car was on Intermediates, with Alpine making what was considered a too-early call to swap to the full wet tires.

But soon, full wets were needed as drivers started to aquaplane off the track as the rain went from a downpour to a deluge in seconds. Perez went long into Turn 1, including a half-spin and a light touch of the barriers that allowed Alonso to sneak through to take second. Behind Perez, more drivers were having difficulties in the wet as both Alfa Romeo drivers went long into Turn 1, which saw Valtteri Bottas recover. However, Guanyu wasn’t as lucky and was stuffed into the barrier, ending his race.

With Zhou in the barrier, the VSC was called around the time that Red Bull called in both Verstappen and Perez to swap over to the full Wet Weather tires, which would undoubtedly mean that the race would soon be halted, and that is what happened. As Perez pitted, the red flag was called, and he was trapped on pit lane, seemingly to have lost valuable track position.

With the red flag displayed, teams brought their cars back down the pit lane as it was unsafe to continue to be on track. Thankfully for Perez, Race Control announced he would be able to keep his third place as the race would be turned back to the lap prior, meaning that Verstappen would lead Alonso, Perez, and Gasly up to fourth after getting past Sainz, who would restart fifth.

After 40 minutes of red flag waiting, the skies had cleared out, and the rain was leaving the track; it was about time to restart. Soon, Perez led a group of drivers who had gotten trapped on the pit lane ahead of race leader Verstappen, and they made their way back to the pits, where the SC would circuit the track for two laps before going back to green, with the remaining 17 cars on track with mandated Intermediate tires.

The SC peeled once again back into the pits, and Verstappen set off once again, with Alonso keeping close in tow so he could have the chance to pick up a victory, his first since Spain in 2013. But he wouldn’t have enough as Verstappen started to gap the field again.

However, the drama wasn’t complete. Soon, it was announced that Perez would be investigated for potentially speeding in the pit lane, and shortly afterward, he was deemed guilty and received a five-second time penalty. Further behind, in the melee of the restart lap, Norris had gotten alongside Russell, which sent him off-track, effectively ending Russell’s chance of a good finish.

As the laps ticked down, Verstappen was able to pull his Red Bull far enough ahead to not worry about a fight against Alonso, as Gasly was attempting to keep his Alpine close enough to Perez to steal a podium finish as more and more spots down the order started to settle themselves out.

Finally, after completing the 72nd lap, Max Verstappen crossed the line and picked up a record-tying ninth victory in a row at his home track, Circuit Zandvoort, for the Dutch Grand Prix. He has now tied the record set by former Red Bull phenom Sebastian Vettel for nine victories in a row and has a chance even further to break that record.

A record-matching streak 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/LIFmBBa3gq

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) August 27, 2023

Following Verstappen home came Alonso, picking up his first podium since Canada, with Gasly sticking just close enough behind Perez to pick up his first Alpine podium in a Grand Prix. Perez fell back to fourth, with Sainz holding onto fifth. Hamilton had clawed his way up to sixth after a weird day while the McLaren duo of Norris and Piastri sandwiched Albon in his Williams. Closing out the top 10 came Ocon, giving Alpine a much-needed double-points finish following the managerial turmoil the team had been facing.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished a tranquil day for him just outside of the points in 11th, ahead of Hulkenberg and debutant Lawson, who had only a singular practice session to get used to the car (though he may get another chance at the next race in Monza). Bottas, Tsunoda, Magnussen, and Russell rounded out the finishers of the Dutch Grand Prix, with Guanyu, Leclerc and Sargeant being the retirees.

Formula 1 now heads to Italy to begin the month of September, where Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing hope to extend their dominant season. Verstappen can break the record for most successive wins in a single season at 10. Will Verstappen set a new record, or will the likes of Norris, Alonso, Perez, or anyone else be able to catch and put a hold on the domination?