Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has won his first-ever home Dutch Grand Prix and has regained the World Championship lead. His rival for the Formula 1 title, Lewis Hamilton, finished second after attempting various strategic moves which were not successful.
Scuderia Ferrari had hoped in a great race start, in order to overtake at least the AlphaTauri car of Pierre Gasly, but every driver managed a strong start and as a result Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were able to only keep their fifth and sixth place in the first part of the race. As expected, it was a cat and mouse game in the top 10 during the first 20 laps, given the difficulty in overtaking on track.
The leaders were first to react, with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen pitting on laps 21 and 22. The Maranello team was mostly interested in Pierre Gasly pit stop change on lap 26. Ferrari decided to stay on track longer and Carlos Sainz pitted six laps later, while Charles Leclerc came in on lap 35, as the Italian side decided to use the hard tyre and attempt to get to the end of the race with just one pit stop. At that moment Gasly took over fourth place again but the AlphaTauri’s tyres were now older than both Ferraris.
The Maranello team was expecting for AlphaTauri to make a second stop with Pierre Gasly, but as the race progressed it became clear that the French driver would attempt to finish the race on the medium tyres. In the last ten laps, Charles tried to close the gap to attack his direct rival for fouth, but in the end there was not that big of a difference in tyre life between the medium and hard tyres, therefore the Monegasque driver had to settle for fifth place.
Unfortunately Carlos Sainz was not able to manage his tyres and was caught by Fernando Alonso with five laps to go and lost his position on the last lap, finishing P7.
In hindsight, not the ideal tyre strategy for Scuderia Ferrari, but the Maranello team still gaines some important points in the fight with McLaren (who only scored one point) for third place in the 2021 Formula 1 Constructor Standings.
Dutch Grand Prix – Here are the complete race results from today’s 2021 F1 World Championship race from Zandvoort.
Results (Classification):
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing – 72 laps
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +20.932
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +56.460
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +1 lap
Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari +1 lap
Fernando Alonso Alpine +1 lap
Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari +1 lap
Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +1 lap
Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
Lando Norris McLaren +1 lap
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +1 lap
Lance Stroll Aston Martin +2 lap
Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +2 laps
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo +2 laps
Robert Kubica Alfa Romeo +2 laps
Nicholas Latifi Williams Racing +2 laps
George Russell Williams Racing +2 lap
Mick Schumacher Haas +3 laps
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri NC
Nikita Mazepin Haas NC
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