Lando Norris shone in the farewell to Zandvoort and completed a perfect weekend in which he also took pole on Saturday. Second was Antonelli, who extends his lead over Hamilton at the top, and third Russell, with Fernando Alonso reaching his best position of the season (9th) after Aston Martin’s improvements.
The farewell to Zandvoort was especially bitter for Max Verstappen. The Dutchman, in fact, could not even finish the first lap. Just as he was about to enter the grandstand straight, he lost control of his car and crashed heavily into the left wall, leaving his Red Bull completely destroyed. At least, his first words over the radio were reassuring. “I’m fine,” he said. Just behind him, however, the domino effect could have been terrible. Lawson managed to dodge him relatively easily, but the one who froze everyone’s blood for a moment was Gabriel Bortoleto. His car, in this case, ended up spinning, forcing Niko Hulkenberg to dodge him in extremis. Fortunately, at least in this case, no one was harmed.
The accident forced the second start of the race to be delayed by about 40 minutes. In the first, Kimi Antonelli took advantage of George Russell‘s poor start to move into second, behind a Lando Norris who had taken pole. In the second, the Italian drove aggressively to take the lead, but Norris’s good performance, able to maximize the hard compound tires’ performance while the Mercedes driver struggled with the medium tires, eventually opened the way for a hard-fought victory. The way he knew how to wait to deliver to Antonelli what seemed clearly a decisive blow to claim the win and the masterful driving lesson he gave throughout the Grand Prix undoubtedly made him very deserving of it, no matter how much the current World Championship leader tried to prevent it.
“It was a tough race. On Saturday I already said we would try to put on a good show, I complicated things for myself, but in the end I think it was one of my best races. I controlled the pace well and right now I feel ecstatic,” said the Briton at the end of what was the last Formula 1 Grand Prix in the Netherlands. “Honestly, it was a very intense race, we managed to take the lead, but from the second stint I didn’t feel comfortable. When Lando overtook me, I knew my chances of winning were over,” explained Antonelli, who nevertheless managed to increase his lead over his closest pursuer, Hamilton, who complained several times about the strategy followed by Ferrari and who ultimately finished fourth behind Russell. From the World Championship leader’s point of view, much must be taken into account regarding what McLaren has been able to do compared to the early stages, but he also took some pride in his own work after a few lackluster recent races. “We did a great job improving and it has paid off. Now, we have to find a bit more time, because McLaren has also made a big leap forward,” he analyzed.
“The start was complicated and these two were very fast all race. Holding on with old tires was difficult, so I am very happy to be on the podium. Kimi was ahead and deserved to finish ahead. It was the right decision,” finally pointed out George Russell, who had to defend himself tooth and nail from Hamilton in the last laps and who perhaps benefited from the appearance of a Virtual Safety Car on lap 70, following a touch between Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, both teammates at Williams and which ultimately cost the Spaniard a 10-second penalty, finishing the race in sixteenth place, last, after Albon, Bottas, Ocon, Stroll and Bearman, as well as Verstappen, could not finish.
Much happier, for sure, was Fernando Alonso, who signed his best performance of this season in Zandvoort. With tires at the limit, the Asturian was able to climb from eighteenth place to finally finish ninth, in a tremendously meritorious ninth position.
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