ZANDVOORT GONE CRAZY, MAX WINNER OF DUTCH GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen delivered a faultless drive in front of a packaged Zandvoort to take a hugely popular home victory in the Dutch Grand Prix, beating Lewis Hamilton by more than 20 seconds after the Mercedes AMG driver made a late pit stop to salvage the point for fastest lap. Third place went to Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes AMG.

At the start of the race, pole sitter Verstappen made a superb getaway to take the lead. Hamilton also made a good start but also and Bottas and they jammed grid through the first two corners, allowing Verstappen to power ahead and by the end of the opening lap the Dutch drivers has established a 1.7s gap to Hamilton.

Behind the top three, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly got away well to hold fourth place ahead of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr.. At the back of the field Sergio Pérez in the second Red Bull was forced to start from the pit lane after an overnight engine change but as he passed the Haas of Nikita Mazepin in the early laps he flat-spotted a tyres and had to pit for an early switch to medium tyres. It was the start of an impressively long first stint for the Mexican driver as he launched a recovery drive.

At the front the order was stable, with Verstappen holding a 3.5s lead over Hamilton. Bottas began to drift off the front pair, however, and by lap 18 he was more than seven seconds adrift of his team-mate.

Then, at the end of lap 20, Hamilton dived for the pits and made the switch to medium tyres. Red Bull responded by pitting Versatppen on the next lap and he saw off the undercut to rejoin two seconds ahead of Hamilton.

Pérez, meanwhile, was making stealthy progress through the pack and by lap 25 he was up to 14th place. His progress picked up two laps later when Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Williams’ George Russell and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi pitted ahead of him.

He rose to P11 and began to hunt down McLaren’s Lando Norris. He swiftly closed up to the McLaren, but having started on medium tyres, Norris was going long and he was able to match the Red Bull driver’s times.

As the race passed half distance Verstappen was once again told to push as it became clear that Mercedes AMG were plotting a second attempt at undercutting the Dutchman. Hamilton pitted at the end of lap 39 for a set of medium tyres but thanks to a set of potent laps Verstappen was able to make his own pit stop, for hartd tyres, of lap 40 and once again he emerged with a clear gap to his championship rival.

Further back, Norris finally made his sole stop for tyres on lap 43 and Pérez could race into clear air. The Mexican made his sole visit to the pit lane at the end of lap 48 and took on a set of soft tyres.

He rejoined in P12 and quickly passed Russell to relaunch his assault on the points positions. He soon began to exert pressure on McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and on lap 56 passed the Australian to claim P9.

His next target was the Australian’s team-mate, Norris, and over the next 10 laps he turned a sizeable deficit into a gap of just half a second before again passing on the around the outside of Turn 1.

His final mission was to get past Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and in the final laps the Red Bull driver passed the Frenchman to claim eighth place.

In those closing stages Hamilton closed to within 1.2 seconds of the lead RBR16B but with his tyres fading and Max expertly managing the gap, the Mercedes AMG driver eventually abandoned his pursuit of victory and pitted for soft tyres.

Hamilton took the fastest lap point on the final tour of Zandvoort, but Verstappen’s seventh win of the season puts him back on top of the Drivers’ Championship standings with 224.5 points to Hamilton’s 221.5. In the Constructors’ Championship Mercedes still top the standings with 244.5 points, 12 ahead of Red Bull Racing.

With Bottas third at the flag, fourth place went to AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly. The French driver also put in an impressive drive to finish ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and the Alpine of Fernando Alonso. Seventh place went to Carlos Sainz Jr. in the second Ferrari and with Checo in P8 the final two points places went to Ocon and Norris.

2021 DUTCH GRAND PRIX 72 laps, 4.259km., Weather: Sunny
CLASSIFIED:
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME/GAP
1.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1h30:05.395
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	+ 20.932
3.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	+ 56.460
4.	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	+ 1 lap
5.	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 1 lap
6.	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	+ 1 lap
7.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	+ 1 lap
8.	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	+ 1 lap
9.	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 1 lap
10.	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 1 lap
11.	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	+ 1 lap
12.	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1 lap
13.	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	+ 1 lap
14.	Anotnio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	+ 2 laps
15.	Robert Kubica	Alfa Romeo	+ 2 laps
16.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	+ 2 laps
17.	George Russell	Williams	DNF
18.	Mick Schumacher	Haas	+ 3 laps
FASTEST LAP: LEWIS HAMILTON - 1:11.097
NOT CLASSIFIED:
19.	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	technical
20.	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	technical
HYBRID ERA - ZANDVOORT CIRCUIT 2021 Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 1h30:05.395 @MkFormula1 - REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

CLASSIFICATION AFTER 13/22 RACES
DRIVERS:
1.	Max Verstappen	224.5
2.	Lewis Hamilton	221.5
3.	Valtteri Bottas	123
4.	Lando Norris	114
5.	Sergio Pérez	108
6.	Charles Leclerc	92
7.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	89.5
8.	Pierre Gasly	66
9.	Daniel Ricciardo	56
10.	Fernando Alonso	46
11.	Esteban Ocon	44
12.	Sebastian Vettel	35
13.	Yuki Tsunoda	18
14.	Lance Stroll	18
15.	George Russell	13
16.	Nicholas Latifi	7
17.	Кими Раиконен	2
18.	Anotnio Giovinazzi	1
19.	Mick Schumacher	0
20.	Nikita Mazepin	0
21.	Robert Kubica	0
CONSTRUCTORS:
1.	Mercedes AMG	344.5
2.	Red Bull	332.5
3.	Ferrari	181.5
4.	McLaren	170
5.	Alpine	90
6.	AlphaTauri	84
7.	Aston Martin	53
8.	Williams	20
9.	Alfa Romeo	3
10.	Haas	0