Round two of qualifying at Zandvoort was halted after a flare fell from the grandstand onto the track at Turn 12, while a second flare was launched near the pit exit midway through Q3.
The second flare is understood to have missed the track, but its orange smoke could be seen through the barriers before the closing laps of qualifying, in which Verstappen managed to overtake rival Charles Leclerc to claim pole position . .
When Max Verstappen was asked by Motorsport.com about those incidents and if he had anything to say to deter home fans who might be tempted to repeat such dangerous actions during Sunday’s race, the Dutchman replied: “It’s very silly to do that.” .
“Keeping the flares, it’s nice to see, of course with a limit on the amount. But throwing them on the track is stupid. I think the person who did it was expelled.”
“You just don’t have to do that. It’s not good for anybody, because you get sent off and you can’t watch the race, and for us the session is stopped because it’s dangerous.”
Speaking alongside Verstappen at the post-qualifying press conference, Leclerc also called on home fans “not to do this kind of thing” and said he was confident “in the future we can do something to prevent it”.
Carlos Sainz, who finished third behind Verstappen and Leclerc, encouraged the organizers of the Dutch GP to “let the fans know when it is possible to use the flares and when not”, although there is already a ban on this that those fans defaulted.
“It’s fine that on Max’s warm-up lap they use them, but not in the middle of the race or on the first lap when we’re all fighting,” said the Spanish driver.
“At 300km/h with these cars you don’t want any sort of distraction from smoke or anything like that.”
“Hopefully the organization can do a good job of letting fans know when it’s time to use them and when not to. And of course, more importantly, they can’t throw them on the track.”
Max Verstappen fans are famous for their orange flares, but this is not the first time flares have been used to support other drivers and teams.
Perhaps the best-known example of flares going off en masse came after Verstappen’s triumph at this very race in 2021, causing smoke to spread across the track as some of his rivals continued to race.
One of those affected was Nicholas Latifi, who, after qualifying last for Sunday’s race, recalled how last year “he couldn’t see anything at the final chicane.”
“If there is still a driver running from behind, it can be very dangerous,” he added. “Maybe there should be some tighter security checks… well, maybe not security checks because you can’t check 100,000 people, but tougher consequences.”
Latifi also revealed that the firing of flares during last weekend’s Belgian GP made him “confuse if there was a car in front or if it was just an orange flare”.
” In Spa there was a moment where it was like ‘oh, has someone gone out in front and there’s no yellow flag?’ I didn’t know exactly.”
“So it’s not ideal and especially on a track like this where everything is very close. At Spa or the Red Bull Ring the grandstands are much further from the track. I think the fans have to behave a bit,” he concluded. Canadian.
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