Verstappen rides his luck to beat Mercedes: 2022 Dutch GP round-up

A day of drama and intense strategic battles ended with a familiar result, as Max Verstappen took a home win to send Dutch fans delirious.

At two points in the race it looked as though Hamilton and Mercedes had pulled off a strategic masterclass to beat the faster Red Bull of Verstappen, but the championship leaders chose the right tyres at the right time on a late safety car, allowing the Dutchman to use his new soft tyres to blast past Hamilton, whose ailing rubber caused him to tumble down the order to fourth.

The Mercedes driver lambasted his team for its strategy, which saw George Russell pit from second place in the closing stages, giving Verstappen a clear run at Hamilton.

“I can’t believed you guys f***ing screwed me, man,” said Hamilton over the radio. “I can’t tell you how pissed I am right now.”

Russell maximised his chance to finish second, with Charles Leclerc a disappointed third. Sergio Perez rounded out the top five as a battling Fernando Alonso brought his Alpine in sixth, just ahead of championship rival Lando Norris

Here’s the 2022 Dutch GP as it happened.

Lap one and Max Verstappen shot to the inside to cover off Charles Leclerc as Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz collided, the Mercedes rubbing up against the Ferrari’s sidepod into the first corner.

Behind them George Russell found himself overtaken by the fast-starting Lando Norris, as Sergio Perez then closed on Hamilton later in the lap.

The crowd roared as Verstappen sailed over the line ahead of Charles Leclerc at the start of lap two, but there was drama behind: Kevin Magnussen corrected a snap of oversteer, but found himself flying into the gravel trap, grazing the barriers but living to fight another day.

Russell slipstreamed past Norris on the start finish straight at the start of lap three, but Leclerc could entertain no such thoughts – the leading Red Bull was now 1.3sec ahead.

“Fine rain” was reported by Sky commentator David Croft in Zandvoort, as Hamilton edged closer to Sainz and found himself within the DRS zone by lap six.

Leclerc set the fastest lap of 1min 16.213sec on the next lap as he tried to reel in Verstappen.

Alonso had similar ideas as he had a look down the inside of Pierre Gasly into Turn 1, but was unable to effect a pass.

Three laps later he made it work – Gasly tried to cover off the inside, but Alonso simply swept round the outside of the AlphaTauri into the first corner.

Magnussen was trying to make amends for his earlier error by getting up the inside of Nicholas Latifi’s Williams at Tarzan, but out-braked himself and was overtaken again.

Soft tyre runners were reporting high degradation, and it was Sebastian Vettel who blinked first – the German’s early pitstop on lap 12 signalled a flurry of stops, including from Gasly, Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo.

Tsunoda and Schumacher pitted on lap 14, but the Haas driver was delayed by a problem on his left rear, causing an 8sec stop.

Also suffering pitstop pain was Carlos Sainz – a slow stop caused by a wrong tyre being brought out lasted 12.7sec on lap 15, also causing issues for Perez stopping behind him.

The Mexcian ran over a Ferrari pit gun in a tight exit, but the Red Bull appeared to escape damage.

Team boss Mattia Binotto told Sky that the pitstop that the pitstop was “a mess, after a late call the mechanics were not ready.”

Schumacher, one of several drivers trying to recover from incidents, pulled off a daring move round the outside of Vettel, as Leclerc came on in lap 18 after he reported that “The tyres are not great”.

Lap 19 saw Verstappen coming in for medium tyres, allowing Mercedes to lead 1-2.

Albon came in lap 22, emerging in 16th.

Verstappen was closing up by lap 25 to both Mercedes, neither of which had pitted, and was now presented with the choice of whether to push on and overtake, or sit behind the Silver Arrows and wait for their pitstops.

The Dutchman was told by his team to “eke up” the gap, and duly did so on lap 28 by sweeping round the outside of Russell into Tarzan, and then set after Hamilton.

Ricciardo, struggling down in 18th, pitted for the hard tyre on the 29th lap, coming out in 19th.

Mercedes did likewise on lap 30 and brought in Hamilton to put on hard tyres. The Silver Arrows driver was fifth when the new Pirellis had been fitted, aiming to go to the end.

Lap 31 saw Zhou Guanyu attempt a pass on Gasly into the first corner, but the AlphaTauri managed to block the Alfa Romeo.

Russell then set the fastest lap of the race – 1min 15.477sec – but this was then bettered by Hamilton by 0.005sec.

The Mercedes driver got into the slipstream of Perez on lap 37 and tried to go round the outside, but the Mexican locked up. This almost pushed the Mercedes off the track, causing him to back out of the move.

Hamilton made it work the second time, but then he almost immediately ran into the back of a slow and lapped Vettel, allowing Perez to attempt a re-pass.

After dicing through several corners, Hamilton managed to fend off Perez and get past the blue-flagged Vettel, but he lost 3sec to Verstappen in the process – meaning it was almost possible for the two-stopping Dutchman to get out in from of the one-stopping Mercedes.

Russell then sailed by Perez on the start-finish straight to claim fourth a lap later, the second Mercedes finding the job a lot easier than the first.

Perez fitted a set of hard tyres on lap 41, after Verstappen had reported that his old medium tyres did not feel “spectacular”.

Two circuits later the Perez closed rapidly on the McLaren of Norris and thought about a pass, but the Brit just managed to block him off into the first turn.

Perez made the pass work on lap 44, before drama began to unfold mid-race.

“Tyres not fitted properly,” exclaimed Yuki Tsunoda on the radio and stopped on track, as it looked like Verstappen and Leclerc might get a cheap stop.

The Japanese driver was then told the wheels were in fact secure, so the threat of a safety car was removed.

The AlphaTauri pitted, went back out, then stopped once more – and the VSC was finally deployed.

This allowed Verstappen his stop to put on a set of hards, and Hamilton also reacted, fitting the medium compound.

The green flag fell again on lap 50, and Hamilton told the team “That VSC has stuffed us.”

Verstappen appeared to confirm this by setting the quickest lap with a 1min 14.454sec, before Hamilton then bettered this by 0.15sec.

Lap 53 saw Alonso trying to go round the outside of Norris at Tarzan, but the McLaren only showed the Alpine the gravel trap.

Ocon had brought himself into the reckoning by running long for a one-stop, and found himself defending from Sainz for sixth.

Bottas stopped on track at the first corner on lap 55, and at the same moment Sainz dived down the inside of Ocon, between the Alpine and the Alfa Romeo.

The safety car was deployed on lap 56, and Verstappen pitted for soft tyres, putting Hamilton and Russell 1-2.

Russell then pitted for the soft tyres a lap later to leave last year’s title rivals in first and second, as chaos unfolded behind, Sainz and Ocon connecting after the Ferrari was released from his box.

“It was not unsafe, I was watching the cameras,” said Sainz, clearly watching the monitor screens as he was touring round.

The safety car came in at the end of lap 60, and Hamilton backed up the pack – it was to no avail though, Verstappen simply got a better drive off the final corner and got past before the first corner on the restart.

Russell then closed up on Hamilton, the former having fresher soft tyres – “That was the biggest **** up” said the latter as he struggled to hold onto second.

On lap 63 the younger driver looked to get past on the main straight, and they nearly collided as both jinked in the same direction. As it was Russell still had enough momentum to get past, as Hamilton soon fell into the clutches of Leclerc.

By lap 66 the Ferrari was past, whilst Perez was closing back on Sainz, while Norris was trying to get back past Alonso for seventh.

Russell was attempting to catch Verstappen, but the Dutchman was maintaining the gap at just over 3sec, easing home to a win in front of his delighted fans.

A disgruntled Sainz was informed he had a 5sec time penalty for an unsafe pit release, meaning he would finish eighth, with Alonso sixth, Norris seventh, Ocon ninth and Stroll rounding out the top 10.

2022 Dutch Grand Prix race results

*includes 5sec penalty for unsafe pitlane release