Just the whole crowd, it’s incredible, says Verstappen
MAX Verstappen won his home Dutch Grand Prix for Red Bull yesterday, and took the Formula One championship lead in front of a roaring, dancing army of fans hailing their hero with orange flags and flares.
The 23-year-old dominated from pole position to take the chequered flag, in the first Dutch Grand Prix for 36 years, 20.932 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas completed the podium, moving up to third in the championship, with the rest of the field all lapped by Verstappen.
Hamilton took a bonus point for the fastest lap, but Verstappen overturned a three-point deficit to go three points clear of Hamilton,
with 224.5 to the Briton’s 221.5.
The victory was Verstappen’s seventh in 13 races, with nine rounds remaining, and set off a gigantic beachside party.
“As you can hear, it’s incredible,” said Verstappen over the roar of the crowd.
“Obviously, the expectations were very high going into the weekend, and it’s never easy to fulfil that, but I’m of course so happy to win here, to take the lead as well in the championship as well.
“It’s just an amazing day. Just the whole crowd, it’s incredible.”
Hamilton also hailed the 70 000-strong crowd for its passion and enthusiasm.
“What a race, what a crowd,” he said. “It’s been an amazing weekend. Max did a great job, congratulations to him. I gave it absolutely everything today, flat-out. I pushed as hard as I could, but they were just too quick for us.”
Pierre Gasly was fourth for AlphaTauri, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc fifth and Fernando Alonso sixth for Renault-owned Alpine.