MAX EDGES CLOSER TO THE CROWN WITH ZANDVOORT GLORY
Hamilton furious as Red Bull denies the Briton his first F1 victory of 2022
Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton has apologised to his team after he felt a late strategy blunder by his squad handed Max Verstappen his 10th win of the 2022 Formula 1 season in front of his adoring Netherlands home fans last weekend.
Hamilton was in the lead of the race, but a late safety car period upset the order. While most rivals pitted for fresh rubber during the interruption, the seven-time champion was left out on track and was a sitting duck for the final dash to the finish as those on fresher Pirellis blasted by. Hamilton, who had been on the radio to his team in a potty-mouthed rant, eventually tumbled to fourth spot. Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell finished second.
Hamilton said: “I was really hopeful we’d get a 1-2 together as a team but the safety car really didn’t help and I was on the edge of breaking point with emotions so my apologies to the team. I just lost it or a second but I think they know there’s just so much passion.”
Verstappen’s win – his fourth on the bounce – has now put him 109 points clear at the top of the standings with seven rounds remaining.
For the thousands of orange T-shirt-wearing Dutch fans crammed into the seaside circuit of Zandvoort, it was another perfect result. Max Verstappen took his 10th victory of the year to extend his championship lead — but he was made to fight for this one.
Holland was Mercedes’most competitive race of 2022 and it came close to upsetting legions of fans in the Orange Army.
Over the 72 laps there were a number of critical strategic calls that could have favoured Mercedes — and in particular Lewis Hamilton — but despite all of the incidents that played out, Verstappen was the most likely victor. If anything, Mercedes lost this race in qualifying the day before when Sergio Perez’s last-corner spin ruined the laps of Hamilton and George Russell.
When they lined up on the grid, fourthplaced Hamilton and sixth-placed Russell both started on the medium tyre — with a plan to run a one-stop — while the cars ahead of them began the Dutch Grand Prix on the soft tyre.
At the first corner Verstappen led from the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, while Hamilton dived to the inside of the Spaniard, and despite the pair touching at Tarzan, there was no harm done to either.
The Mercedes inherited third when Sainz made a late call to switch to the mediums on lap 15. In fact, it was such a tardy decision the Maranello crew didn’t have a left-rear tyre ready — and in another unbelievably shambolic display — Sainz was stationary for 12.7 seconds. And it wasn’t the team’s only pit infraction. Later in the race Sainz was slapped with a five-second penalty for an unsafe release.
When leader Verstappen and secondplaced Leclerc switched from the soft to the medium tyre, the two Mercedes inherited their places at the front of the field. From lap 19 to 30 Hamilton led and he pitted for the hard tyre to indicate he was on a one-stop.
When he started setting personal bests and fastest laps, Verstappen knew he had a race on his hands. His gap to Hamilton was just under 20s and that started to reduce rapidly.
There was a spirited attempt by Perez to slow Hamilton and the British driver lost three seconds trying to pass the second Red Bull on lap 37, but by this stage he had closed the gap to Verstappen to 15 seconds. The Dutchman would need to pit and then attempt to try and pass his rival on-track if he wanted victory.
Then the race took its first twist — and for a mysterious reason. On lap 44 the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda was stationary at the side of the track. Just after a pitstop he was complaining of his tyres not being fitted. His team told him to continue and he came into the pits again for another set of tyres and had his seatbelts tightened. Once on track, he was told to stop. Cue a Virtual Safety Car.
Max could now pit and get out ahead of Hamilton. So, Mercedes decided to gamble by putting both its cars onto the mediums. With 22 laps to go it was now Hamilton who had to close a 15.4s gap to catch and pass Max for the win. And it was working, within six laps he’d taken five seconds out of the Dutchman’s lead.
Then on lap 55 the race took another turn. Valtteri Bottas pulled off to the side of the track towards Turn 1 having lost engine power. Cue a safety car.
Red Bull gambled on losing track position in favour of a better race tyre and pitted Verstappen onto softs. He came out behind both Mercedes in third in the safety car queue. But Russell also wanted softs and convinced his team to pit him, so Verstappen now split the Mercedes before the restart. It meant Hamilton had lost his rear-gunner and he was furious. “That is the biggest **** up,” said Hamilton. “I can’t believe you guys have ****** me.”
At the restart Verstappen easily passed Hamilton to take the lead and another famous home win. Lewis then lost positions to his team-mate (despite jinking across to block him on the start-finish straight) and to Leclerc. It was the closest he’d come to victory all year, but ultimately he finished fourth. Yet despite the strategy calls with the VSC and safety car, in reality, Hamilton lost this race in the dying seconds of qualifying — thanks to Perez spinning and ruining his shot at pole…