Max Verstappen exceeded a hundred – Newspaper Kommersant No. 162 (7363) of 09/05/2022

Max Verstappen has taken another step towards securing the second world title of his career. On Sunday, the Dutchman won the Dutch Grand Prix. After this success, the gap between the Red Bull driver and the closest pursuers rose to 109 points. It is only theoretically possible to win back such a gap for the seven remaining races before the end of the championship.

After the Belgian Grand Prix, where a week ago Max Verstappen not only won, but scattered their rivals, who were not helped in any way even by the fact that the reigning world champion started from the middle of the second ten of the peloton, at the Dutch Grand Prix, with the support of a noisy one hundred thousand “orange” army of fans, Verstappen was waiting for a repeat of the triumph. True, he himself noted that the tracks in Spa and Zandvoort are very different, and said that dominance akin to what happened in Belgium should not be expected. And, in general, as the race showed, he did not flirt at all. Although the beginning of the stage did not give hope that the audience would see something exciting.

After a calm, incident-free start, Verstappen kept the lead. He confidently repulsed the attack of Ferrari leader Charles Leclerc and drove away from him at a fairly safe distance.

Most often, such a start, and even on the track, where overtaking is difficult, means that the intrigue is dead. On Sunday, the test, to be sure, a shot was also fired at her at Ferrari. How strange she builds her races this season, how controversial decisions her management makes, has been discussed more than once. But in Holland, the Italians were able to surprise again. Leclerc, according to tradition, was called to the pit stop at the wrong moment, but instead of four wheels, Carlos Sainz was given three. Not surprisingly, the Ferrari drivers ended up behind two Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. However, it was this circumstance that made the race quite interesting.

Mercedes, which happened this season, the transition to the new technical regulations frankly failed. The once best car of the championship frankly did not drive for most of the championship, “pleasing” except perhaps with an outstanding “goat” of its cars. But lately things have gotten better.

Mercedes still does not have the speed to compete with Red Bull on an equal footing, but the team is already quite coping with the same Ferrari. In Holland, in principle, she could have swung her hand at winning the first victory of the season.

True, making such an assumption, it is worth mentioning that Mercedes’ chances were not the highest. Not even 50%. And they did not stem from the pure pace of the cars of Hamilton and Russell, but from the tactical pattern chosen by the team. She scheduled one, not two, like top opponents, pit stops. And if the plans of Mercedes were not violated by circumstances, this approach could give a result. Still, Verstappen, although he was the fastest in terms of pace, but not as much as a week earlier.

Everything was broken by the breakdown of the engine on Alfa Romeo Valtteri Bottas. Finn stood on the starting line, a safety car appeared on the track (at that time Hamilton and Russell were leading the race), which gave both Verstappen and Leclerc a chance to switch to soft rubber “free of charge”. With shouts of “Change my wheels!” stopped in the pits and Russell. And only the seven-time world champion did nothing. And in vain. After the restart, Verstappen whistled past Hamilton like a bullet. Soon, under the curses that Lewis Hamilton showered on the team for not calling him in time for a tire change, the Briton was bypassed by Russell, and then, against the backdrop of Hamilton’s incessant swearing, also by Leclerc. Actually, in the same order, Verstappen, Russell and Leclerc reached the finish line and arrived. Hamilton was content with fourth place.

The victory of the Dutchman (fourth in a row and tenth of the season) makes him practically inaccessible to his pursuers. Verstappen has 310 points. Leclerc and Red Bull No. 2 Sergio Perez have 201 each. It is only in theory to win back the 109 points deficit over the remaining seven races.

Alexander Petrov