Verstappen controlled much of Sunday’s race at Zandvoort, but a late safety car after Valtteri Bottas broke down put some tension at the end of the test.
Red Bull opted to relinquish track position and pitted Verstappen for a new set of soft tyres, while Mercedes initially kept Hamilton with his mid game ahead of teammate George Russell to be momentarily first and second.
But, a lap later, Mercedes called Russell into the pits, leaving Max Verstappen in second position for the restart. On his new set of soft tyres, Verstappen passed Lewis Hamilton on the main straight as racing resumed to claim his tenth win of the season.
Red Bull F1 Racing director Christian Horner admitted it was a difficult decision to give up track position in Verstappen’s home race, so he was surprised when Mercedes brought in Russell.
“You have your home driver leading in front of 105,000 people, and you decide to pit him on the soft tires in exchange for giving up track position and coming out behind two Mercedes,” Horner reflected.
“I was surprised that they didn’t strategically leave George out to shield Lewis from behind, like a squire. When he came into the pits, there was a direct fight between Max and Lewis on different tyres.
“By the time they got past the pit wall, Max was at their side, and from there it was a matter of controlling the race.”
Horner added that the team was concerned that Verstappen would have been “exposed” had Red Bull left him out on hard tyres, instead preferring “to go on the attack rather than try to hold on at the front.”
“My biggest concern was that they would go two-on-one,” Horner said.
“But when George came into the pits, that then left a one-on-one fight between Max and Lewis.
Verstappen admitted after the race that there was “no way” he could stay out on the hard tire and hold on, but said he did not ask Red Bull to pit for softs as he trusted his team to make the right decision.
“I didn’t ask for it, you also have to trust your team to make the right decisions, and they did,” Verstappen celebrated.
“They put me in, they put the soft tyre, and then we fell behind, but of course George pitted for softs, so we were second again.”
“Surprisingly we had a very good restart, and then with the extra top speed we have over Mercedes, I was able to power into Turn 1.”
