By F1 correspondent Michael Butterworth
BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton to attain his tenth win of the 2022 F1 season and the thirtieth of his profession in Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix.
The Dutchman had led away from his pole place, however got here below risk from the Mercedes pair of Hamilton and George Russell, who gave the impression to be aiming to run the race with just one pit cease fairly than two.
After dropping the result in the Mercedes pair on Lap 18, Verstappen was again in entrance by Lap 30, however knew he needed to make one other cease later within the race for a unique tyre compound.
However, his activity was made simpler by the introduction of the Virtual Safety Car on Lap 47, which was deployed to clear Yuki Tsunoda’s stricken AlphaTauri, with the Japanese complaining of a fault on the rear of his automobile.
This allowed Verstappen to make his pitstop with out dropping the lead, however he and several other others had been again within the pits just some laps later, when Valtteri Bottas stopped his automobile on the start-finish straight to carry out the Safety Car.
Verstappen’s third cease noticed him drop to 3rd behind the 2 Mercedes, however with the vehicles order touring by the pit lane, second-placed Russell requested to cease for brand new Soft compound tyres, complaining that his ageing Medium rubber was going off.
This promoted Verstappen into second place, and with Hamilton one of many few drivers nonetheless on used Medium compound rubber, the Briton was a sitting duck when racing resumed, with Verstappen overtaking him on the first alternative across the exterior of Tarzan nook.
From then on, the Dutchman was by no means headed as he cruised to his tenth win of a dominant season forward of a partisan house crowd.
“Quotes,” stated Verstappen, who additionally took house the bonus level for Fastest Lap. “More quotes.”
Behind Verstappen, Russell equalled his greatest ever end with second place, with the rostrum rounded out by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who misplaced time relative to the others when he pitted simply earlier than the deployment of the VSC.
An offended Hamilton ended the race in fourth, clearly sad at Mercedes’ determination to pit Russell and promote Verstappen into second place earlier than the Safety Car restart.
Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez took fifth place, with Fernando Alonso in a effective sixth place for Alpine after having began thirteenth.
Lando Norris was seventh for McLaren, forward of Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz, who dropped three locations after a time penalty for an unsafe launch at a pitstop.
Alonso’s teammate Esteban Ocon took ninth, with Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin rounding out the highest ten.
Verstappen’s win strikes him onto 310 factors on the prime of the Drivers’ Championship, 110 factors forward of Leclerc and Perez, with the Ferrari driver forward because of profitable three races to Perez’s one.
In the Constructors’ Championship, Red Bull now have 511 factors. Ferrari keep second with 376, and Mercedes stay third with 346 factors.
The fifteenth spherical of the 2022 F1 season is the Italian Grand Prix at Monza subsequent Sunday.