Results and recap from F1 Sunday at Zandvoort: the race

Max Verstappen led from pole, ahead of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. They all started on the soft tyres, while the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell opted for the medium from the start, attempting to go to just one stop.

That strategy was ruined by a bizarre double VSC caused by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda stopping on the track twice, giving Verstappen a chance to pit and lose less time, though things got hectic again when Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo stalled as well, prompting the safety car to come out.

Hamilton returned to the lead at that point, but was at a tire disadvantage to the drivers behind, so the Dutchman quickly overtook him on the restart. The Briton dropped to fourth place eventually and got angry on the radio.

Formula 1 Dutch GP 2022 Race Results at Zandvoort

Cla	Pilot		laps	Difference	Interval	Points
1	Max Verstappen		72			26
2	George Russell		72			18
3	Charles Leclerc		72		10.929	15
4	Lewis Hamilton		72		2.087	12
5	Sergio Perez		72		5,152	10
6	Fernando Alonso		72		0.586	8
7	Lando Norris		72		0.552	6
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.		72		1,610	4
9	Esteban Ocon		72		0.201	2
10	Lance Stroll		72		1.342	1
11	Pierre Gasly		72		4,550
12	Alexander Albon		72		3.381
13	Mick Schumacher		72		2.605
14	Sebastian Vettel		72		3.012
15	Kevin Magnussen		72		0.862
16	Guanyu Zhou		72		0.451
17	Daniel Ricciardo		72		0.444
18	Nicholas Latifi		71
	Valtteri Bottas		53
	Yuki Tsunoda		43
see results

What happened in the 2022 Dutch GP F1 race

Verstappen kept his pole position advantage, leading ahead of Leclerc and Sainz, the latter falling behind after a slight touch with Hamilton at Turn 1.

Under pressure from Alex Albon’s Williams, Kevin Magnussen went off the track on lap two which dropped him to the back of the field. Russell’s Mercedes overtook Lando Norris’s McLaren on DRS to take sixth on lap three.

Sainz was the first of the leading drivers to pit on lap 15, the stop was very bad, 12.7 seconds, as the Ferrari mechanics did not have the left rear wheel ready, which allowed Pérez to beat him the position.

Leclerc , who lost 5 seconds to Verstappen, pitted on lap 18. The Dutchman entered a lap later, leaving the Mercedes in the lead, on medium tyres.

On newer tyres, Verstappen passed Russell on lap 28, falling behind Hamilton who was 2.6s behind. The British veteran stopped and went hard a lap later and rejoined in fifth position, while Russell did the same a couple of laps later.

Hamilton attacked Perez for third on lap 36 and, after a couple of tries, managed to overtake at the end of the main straight, but was handicapped by Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) as he came out of the pits, increasing his gap with Verstappen. Russell easily passed Perez two laps later.

Verstappen was not happy with the medium tyre, and Hamilton started cutting it, as did Leclerc. Pérez pitted and put hard at that point, aiming to help Verstappen’s next tire choice, and immediately set the fastest lap of the race. Leclerc pitted on lap 46 to ride the hard ones.

Yuki Tsunoda left his car parked at Turn 5, claiming his tires were not fitted correctly, but rejoined without prompting a safety car. After another pit stop, he re-parked his car causing a virtual safety car, which ruined Mercedes ‘ one-stop strategy, and left the Ferraris on newly fitted hard tires as Norris and Fernando Alonso (Alpine) changed to soft taking advantage of the VSC.

Verstappen pitted for fresh hard tyres, as did Hamilton and Russell for mediums. The race resumed with Verstappen leading by 13s over Hamilton, Russell and Leclerc.

Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo stopped before Turn 1, just as Sainz passed Ocon and moved into sixth under yellow flags. Verstappen pitted for softs, allowing Hamilton to re-lead the race from Russell.

Under the Safety Car period, Russell stopped again and also rode the softs, as did Sainz , who almost hit Alonso when he rejoined the fast lane of the pit lane.

The race resumed with Hamilton , on used mediums, leading Verstappen , on softs, Russell and Leclerc. Pérez was fifth with the midfielders, ahead of Sainz, Alonso, Norris and Ocon.

Verstappen passed Hamilton in the opening meters of the grand prix restart, with Sainz similarly overtaking Pérez to move up to fifth.

Russell passed an angry Hamilton and moved up to second on lap 64. Leclerc also passed Hamilton and knocked him off the podium.

Sainz received a 5-second penalty for an unsafe release in the pits, which dropped him from fifth to eighth.

Verstappen eventually won, ahead of Russell and Leclerc. Hamilton, meanwhile, held on to finish fourth, with Pérez, Alonso and Norris trailing behind.

2022 Dutch Grand Prix Fast Laps