The drivers arrived at the second consecutive weekend of competition with the Dutch Grand Prix, the home of Max Verstappen in which thousands of fans dressed in orange covered the stands of the Zandvoort circuit. On Saturday, the Dutchman gave joy to all those who traveled to the track by achieving pole position, although he had to defend it against the threat of the two Ferraris, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
Incidents, overtaking and disparate strategies were the ingredients that made up the new triumph of the Dutchman at home, causing the party in the stands celebrating the 30th victory of the Red Bull driver in his racing career. In addition, Verstappen almost sealed his second world title after seeing how George Russell slipped between the two Ferraris with a good plan in his pitlane stops.
Charles Leclerc was the third in discord and adds a bittersweet podium that leaves him practically without options in the championship. Behind, and already outside the positions of honor, Lewis Hamilton finished, who came to be in the lead until the last restart after a safety car caused by Valtteri Bottas.
In fifth place finished a Sergio Pérez who was involved in many fights with Sainz, who was penalized with 5 seconds for an unsafe release that made him drop from fifth to eighth place. His place was inherited by Fernando Alonso, who overcame Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll, who closed the points zone.
Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix 2022 Race Results
| Cla | Pilot | laps | Weather | Difference | Interval | Km/h | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Max Verstappen |
 |
72 | – | 26 | |||
| 2 |  George Russell |
 |
72 | 4.071 | 4.071 | 4.071 | 18 | |
| 3 |  Charles Leclerc |
 |
72 | 10.929 | 10.929 | 6.858 | 15 | |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton |
 |
72 | 13.016 | 13.016 | 2.087 | 12 | |
| 5 |  Sergio Perez |
|
72 | 18,168 | 18,168 | 5,152 | 10 | |
| 6 |  Fernando Alonso |
 |
72 | 18.754 | 18.754 | 0.586 | 8 | |
| 7 | Lando Norris |
 |
72 | 19.306 | 19.306 | 0.552 | 6 | |
| 8 | Carlos Sainz Jr. |
 |
72 | 20,916 | 20,916 | 1,610 | 4 | |
| 9 |  Esteban Ocon |
 |
72 | 21.117 | 21.117 | 0.201 | 2 | |
| 10 |  Lance Stroll |
 |
72 | 22.459 | 22.459 | 1.342 | 1 | |
| see results | ||||||||
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix 2022 Race Summary
The test began without many surprises, with the first ones maintaining their starting positions, so Max Verstappen kept the lead, followed by both Ferrari, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, who touched with the Madrid slightly in the first corner. However, hostilities began from behind, as Guanyu Zhou’s Alfa Romeo and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas engaged in a wheel-to-wheel battle that ended with the Dane brushing the wall after losing control of his car.
After that, the race leveled off, largely because the drivers were conserving tires with their pit stops in mind, although Fernando Alonso grew tired of waiting and overtook Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri on lap ten to move up to 12th . position thanks to DRS. The Asturian repeated the maneuver just two laps later with the other car from Faenza before going through the pitlane to mount a game of hard.
As the laps went by, Sainz’s soft rubber collapsed and Hamilton’s medium began to allow him a higher pace per lap. For the same reason, in the Prancing Horse he thought of making a pit stop, which they did shortly after to protect themselves from those who came from behind. However, the Italians failed at the moment of changing the tires and made a stop of more than 12 seconds to mount the means to the Spaniard.
The madness of the stops and the different strategies begins (lap 21 of 72)
That caused many places to fall, and even Sergio Pérez overtook him with the same strategy, while the leaders, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, remained at the top for more laps. In Mercedes they were presented as covered, since their British duo kept up a great pace with the medium compound, which would allow them to consummate an overcut on the Mexican and the Spanish from Ferrari.
After the first round of stops, the reigning world champion and world leader kept the first place, although the silver arrows mounted the hard ones to try a stop and get what would be the first victory of the course for Brackley. To do this, they had to stop Verstappen, but on the first attempt he passed his rivals with an excellent maneuver in turn 1 .
Behind, the early stop of Fernando Alonso allowed him to climb to eighth position to be only behind Lando Norris in the fight to be the best of the rest.
The battle in the distance for the podium (lap 43 of 72)
After passing the halfway point of the test, Verstappen seemed the clear candidate for victory, thus repeating his performance from last season, although for this he had to keep a Charles Leclerc at bay who was told on the radio that they were sure they could beat the Mercedes despite going with a different strategy from the hard ones. His teammate, who lost the position with Checo, fell to fifth position when the Mexican pitted, but the one from Guadalajara managed to come back with new tires, although on lap 47 he changed the entire race.
Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri stalled after Turn 3 when he suffered problems with what appeared to be the belts. Be that as it may, the Japanese caused a virtual safety car that caused all the drivers to go through the pitlane to mount a set of new tires.
Lewis Hamilton thanked his team for the good stop, while Alonso suffered a bad stop from Alpine that sent him to ninth place, although with soft that could allow him to overtake in the resumption of the test. A few laps later the green flag reappeared and everyone returned to competition speed, although the man from Oviedo was the fastest, thus approaching Lando Norris.
The Alpine driver tried to overtake the Briton on the outside of Turn 1 , but the McLaren driver avoided it by closing the door quite a bit, thus leaving the Spaniard in the same position. What no one expected was that Valtteri Bottas’s Alfa Romeo would stop on the finish straight due to reliability problems, which caused the safety car to come out.
A race to the final sprint (lap 58 of 72)
The Safety Car caused many to go through the pitlane to mount new tires, as did Carlos Sainz, who could receive a penalty for an alleged overtaking under yellow flag. The Madrid native’s bad luck after his first slow stop was repeated again, as he starred in an unsafe release when he went ahead of Alonso’s car.
The stewards did not indicate anything, and the moment the race resumed, the real fire began. Lewis Hamilton lost the lead when Max Verstappen went parallel on the finish straight, but following the regulations by passing Mercedes once he crossed the line, something that Carlos Sainz also did with Sergio Pérez to climb to fifth position, although Charles Leclerc did not suffer the same fate with George Russell and remained fourth.
The seven-time champion could not prevent his teammate from passing him as Verstappen did a few laps before, and he had to pay more attention to the Ferraris than to second place, because the Italians were coming strong. The stewards finally decided to penalize Sainz, which sent him to eighth place, while the Dutchman celebrated a new victory at home, with Russell and Leclerc accompanying the Red Bull on the podium.
The points zone was completed by Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Pérez, Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll.
