Max Verstappen makes history with Dutch GP win in dramatic ending to race as Lewis Hamilton climbs up to sixth
MAX VERSTAPPEN equalled an F1 record for nine consecutive wins with his 11th victory of the season.
His parade around his home track was delayed by 45 minutes due to a red flag eight laps from the end due to heavy rain.
But there is simply no stopping his romp to his third title as he made it a hat-trick of wins in his home GP.
He now has a 138 point lead in the championship over his teammate Sergio Perez, who was classified in fourth place due to a five second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
Verstappen made a good start but quickly saw droplets of rain on his visor as Zandvoort was hit by a shower.
The rain was heavy in parts of the track and Red Bull quickly called in Perez to pit for intermediate tyres.
As Verstappen tiptoed his way around the track, the Mexican was able to take full advantage of his extra grip so that when the championship leader did make his stop at the end of lap two, Perez had pulled himself into the lead.
It was quick-thinking and a smooth stop from his Red Bull team while Ferrari bungled Charles Leclerc’s pitstop as they were not ready with his tyres.
Mercedes were equally caught out by the shower, initially telling Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to remain out on track before calling them in.
Verstappen returned to the track in fourth place after his pitstop and quickly set about making up his lost places.
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He passed Pierre Gasly on lap six to move into second place with a 11.7second gap to Perez.
By the following lap he’d sliced that to 7.4 seconds as he reeled in his teammate at an astonishing rate.
With the threat of further rain gone, Red Bull decided to bring in Verstappen for soft tyres – crucially pitting him before Perez, despite him being the race-leader.
The undercut left Perez exasperated as he felt perhaps that he should have been first given his track position.
The shuffle meant that Verstappen was put into the lead and he held his nerve at the safety car restart following Logan Sargeants’s crash into the barriers.
He remained untroubled out in front while Perez looked comfortable in second and held a big enough gap to Fernando Alonso running in third.
Leclerc’s misery was ended when Ferrari retired his car on lap 41 while Hamilton tussled with Russell for seventh place.
Russell, running on older hard tyres had no grip and pulled over to let his Mercedes teammate through.
But no sooner had they changed positions, the heavens opened 11 laps from the end throwing the pitlane into chaos.
After an otherwise dreary 60-odd laps, finally the rain livened this race up but just as the drivers struggled to plot their way around on the intermediate tyres, Zhou Guanyu crashed at Turn One.
Understandably due to the barrier repairs and the crane needed to remove the Alfa Romeo, the race steward stopped the race.
However, it was nonetheless frustrating as it looked as though Verstappen would be made to work for his win.
The barrier repairs were completed swifty but there was still a totally inexplicable delay before the restart.
And when they did get underway for the final few laps, it was behind the safety car in another ultra-cautious decision from the stewards.
And Verstappen held on to P1 over the final few laps to maintain Red Bull’s 100 percent winning start to the season.
Alonso was second and Gasly was promoted to third place in lieu of Perez’s penalty. Sainz was fifth having held off Hamilton, who was sixth with Lando Norris in seventh.