Decidedly untouchable this season, Max Verstappen won his 9th consecutive victory at Zandvoort, thus equaling the number of consecutive victories established by the German Sebastian Vettel in 2013 when the latter was also racing for Red Bull. The reigning double world champion also increases his lead in the world championship over his teammate Sergio Pérez, 4th on Sunday. He now has, after 13 events out of 22, 339 points for 201 in Pérez. “Things were not easy today with the weather. We had a good strategy with our pit stops,” said Verstappen to the ovations of a crowd all committed to his cause and … soaked. “The pressure is always constant to succeed and we always want to win,” he continued as he will have the opportunity next Sunday in Monza in Italy to exceed Vettel’s record.
However, he did not leave Zandvoort with a perfect score after his pole position and his victory since he had to leave the lap record to Fernando Alonso, 2nd on Sunday in his Aston Martin. “The car was flying today”, underlined the Spaniard who, at 42, is experiencing a new youth at Aston Martin and occupies 3rd place in the championship behind Verstappen and Pérez.
The 3rd is a surprising Pierre Gasly who took advantage at the wheel of his Alpine of a penalty inflicted on Pérez in the last laps to climb on the podium, bringing balm to the heart to the French team which is going through a difficult period. “What a race! We’re trying to improve race after race and I’m happy to take this 3rd place,” said the Frenchman. If the start of the race was given on a dry track, the rain immediately began to fall and the pilots had to make the choice to stop or not to put on intermediate tires for the wet.
The first to do so was Pérez who found himself in the lead ahead of the Chinese Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo), who was not expected at such a party. However, the rain quickly stopped, this time penalizing the drivers on wet tires and forcing them to stop again. In this little game, it was the inevitable Verstappen who took the lead on the 12th lap, ahead of Pérez and Alonso. However, the weather remained capricious, the rain dampening certain parts of the circuit but not others. The American Logan Sargeant (Williams) then violently left the track on the 16th lap, without damage to him but causing the exit of the safety car. This disappeared six laps later, Verstappen quickly widening a gap of more than three seconds on Pérez, still followed by Alonso and Gasly. But the rain chose the 60th lap to reappear. It was again Pérez who decided to stop first to switch to intermediate tires while Verstappen continued for one more lap which served him well as he retained the race lead.
But Zhou Guanyu lost control of his single-seater which was about to crash into the safety barriers and the race management decided to display the red flag interrupting the event to allow the Alfa Romeo to be released from the Chinese and allow the track to to dry. A new rolling start was given after approximately 30 minutes of interruption. After two laps under the safety car, the last five laps saw Alonso trying to get the better of Verstappen but without success. Pérez received a 5 second penalty, which opened the doors to the podium for Pierre Gasly provided he finished within 5 seconds of the Mexican, which he managed to do. Alpine could also rejoice with the 10th place of its other French driver Esteban Ocon.
At Ferrari, the results are very mixed with a 5th place for the Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr. but a calamitous race for the Monegasque Charles Leclerc forced to retire after a disappointing race. Also few reasons to rejoice at Mercedes, the seven-time British world champion Lewis Hamilton only finishing 6th and his teammate and compatriot George Russell giving up after a collision with another Briton, Lando Norris (McLaren) who finished 7th.
