For the first time in his career, Max Verstappen won four consecutive races, thanks to victory on home soil. The Dutchman won at Zandvoort in front of George Russell and Charles Leclerc, for his 10th win in 15 races this season.
Max Verstappen – 10
Verstappen is a man of infinite resources and it looks like there is just no possible way to beat him when he has a good enough car.
The weekend was off slowly on Friday, but Red Bull turned it around and Verstappen managed to claim pole position by just 21 thousandths of a second, with both Ferrari drivers left disappointed.
He held off Leclerc’s pressure and just as it looked like the biggest threat were the two Mercedes drivers, the Red Bull pitwall delivered the perfect strategy and Verstappen took the win.
His championship lead is now of 109 points, meaning he could potentially already win the title in two rounds at Singapore.
Embed from Getty ImagesGeorge Russell – 8.5
For one reason or another, Russell isn’t always at his best on Saturday, with his strategy compromised by a lack of new tyre sets that saw him start from sixth.
The Brit lost out to Lando Norris at the start, but soon found his way back up and looked quick when trying to execute a one-stopper.
He made the right call when switching to new soft tyres at the end, when the safety car came out, claiming second place from teammate Lewis Hamilton to match his best finish in Formula One.
Russell is only 13 points behind provisional runner-ups Leclerc and Sergio Perez, as Mercedes look to attack Ferrari’s second place in the standings.
Embed from Getty ImagesCharles Leclerc – 8
Leclerc was left powerless, as Ferrari inexplicably lost much of their pace on Sunday, despite looking like likely pole position candidates, before both drivers had messy laps and settled for second and third.
His first stint on soft tyres was promising, closely following Verstappen, but Leclerc started to drop and eventually fell behind both Mercedes cars, who were on a fast and well-executed one-stop strategy.
The timing of the virtual safety car didn’t help him, but it was clear that Ferrari were struggling and for Leclerc it was a success to get just his second podium in 10 races.
Embed from Getty ImagesLewis Hamilton – 8
If this is the trend, it will only be a matter of time before Hamilton wins his first race of the season, as the Mercedes driver looked like a candidate for the win until a late strategy mess up.
He was caught out by the yellow flags in qualifying and had to start from fourth, but he went on a long first stint on medium tyres to lead the race. He would have likely found himself in first once Verstappen had to stop, had it not been for the virtual safety car.
Once the safety car came out, the Mercedes pit wall opted for track position, rather than new tyres, but Hamilton, who was provisionally the race leader, fell to fourth, struggling to hide his disappointment.
Embed from Getty ImagesSergio Perez – 6.5
The Mexican driver continued his streak of top five finishes when he sees the chequered flag, showing he doesn’t have as many bad weekends as last year. However, by now he is just little more than a companion for Verstappen in the Dutchman’s dominant season.
Perez spun out of qualifying and was left starting from fifth, virtually occupying that place all throughout the race.
He never looked like a podium candidate, but at least took home 10 points, which mean Red Bull have a solid 135 points lead on Ferrari in the constructors championship.
Fernando Alonso – 9
His 10th consecutive points-finish was well-earned, as Fernando Alonso had to start from 13th after messing up his qualifying run due to traffic.
He wasn’t as quick off the line as his teammate Esteban Ocon, but overtook a series of cars on track and during the pit stop phase, managing to be in eighth place for the last phase of the race.
He was very quick on soft tyres, posing a threat to Norris and Carlos Sainz, moving in front of both of them at the flag.
Embed from Getty ImagesLando Norris – 8
His fourth seventh-place finish in five races consolidated his seventh-place in the standings, having collected 81% of the team’s total points.
The McLaren car returned to having decent speed around Zandvoort, and Norris did his job, as usual, qualifying in seventh, as best of the rest. He looked like he could pull it off until the end, but the fast charging Alonso became a serious threat when the safety car came out.
The team opted for a conservative strategy to secure seventh place, which arrived despite a long but ineffective series of attacks to the Spaniard.
Embed from Getty ImagesCarlos Sainz – 6
The weekend looked promising for Sainz, who missed out on pole position by less than a tenth of a second.
However, after suffering a contact with Hamilton, it soon looked like he couldn’t match the leaders. To make things far worse, the Ferrari pit wall called him in for a pit stop when the tyres weren’t ready, which completely ruined his race.
He emerged just in front of Norris and Alonso, whom he seemed unable to drop back and eventually lost out to both due to a penalty for an unsafe release.
Esteban Ocon – 7
A fast start from 12th on the grid helped him climb up to ninth on the opening lap, but that is where Ocon stayed, as he still managed to bring home points for the Alpine team.
He lost out in the head-to-head to Alonso, who this weekend looked much quicker, but was able to move ahead of Lance Stroll. The Aston Martin’s early last stop was penalised by the safety car, which allowed Ocon to have a free second stop.
The Alpine team are now consolidating fourth on the standings, but an intra-team battle is forming, as Alonso’s fourth consecutive race in front of the Frenchman means that only seven points separate the two.
Embed from Getty ImagesLance Stroll – 8
The Canadian had his best weekend of the season, with Aston Martin challenging McLaren and Alpine, and Stroll proving rather unlucky to have an issue in Q3 which forced him to start 10th.
He made up for it with a great start up to eighth place, before being set to a final battle with Norris and Alonso in the final stint, looking to use the potential degradation of his rivals’ soft tyres to his advantage.
However, the safety car “forced” him to switch to soft tyres not to lose out, and he was left in 10th, for his fifth points-finish of the season.
Pierre Gasly – 6
This weekend, there was a substantial difference between the Alpha Tauri and the top six cars, which meant Pierre Gasly would have found it hard to score points had it not been for issues in front.
He was closely matched all throughout with teammate Yuki Tsunoda, as the two were running just outside the top 10, before the Japanese driver retired.
Gasly inherited 11th place, but was unable to pose any sort of attack to Stroll in front, even despite the late safety car.
Embed from Getty ImagesAlex Albon – 7
One of Albon’s best qualities this season is to finish higher up than where he started, despite not always having a very competitive car.
His 12th place, ahead of drivers like Mick Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, on faster cars, is proof of merit, as he silently made his way up to keep hold of his position after the safety car restart.
Mick Schumacher – 7.5
The German driver is being rather unlucky this season, as it looks like that problems only hit him when he is in good position to score points.
He was superb in qualifying, managing to claim eighth place, 10 positions in front of Kevin Magnussen. He lost two places at the start, but was coming back to life with medium tyres in the later part of the stint.
Crucially, he suffered a slow stop which put him completely out of contention, as the front jack didn’t come off. He dropped to 19th place, but recovered to 13th with a long though pointless charge.
Embed from Getty ImagesSebastian Vettel – 4.5
A qualifying mistake ruined all his chances at Zandvoort, as Vettel was forced to start from 19th despite Holland looking like one of the best tracks for Aston Martin this season.
The German had the fastest sector one in Q1, but went off at the last corner and couldn’t improve his time, losing a big chance to score points.
He tried to stop very early, but his strategy was ineffective, as he could only recover to 14th.
Kevin Magnussen – 4
His fame of being a driver that often pushes the limits was well evident, as he was the only driver to go off track during the race, dropping from 15th to 20th after hitting the wall and being quite lucky to continue on.
He wasn’t as quick as Mick Schumacher and ended up finishing behind the German despite him suffering an endless pit stop.
Zhou Guanyu – 6
The Chinese driver is finding his shape in Formula One, but unfortunately for him, this has come at the worst moment of the season for Alfa Romeo.
Zhou Guanyu managed to beat his teammate Valtteri Bottas for a Q2 appearance, just holding him off, starting from 14th place.
The two were also well-matched during the race, which at least shows that Zhou has what it takes to be a Formula One driver, even when he doesn’t score points.
Embed from Getty ImagesDaniel Ricciardo – 4
Ricciardo will be counting down his remaining days at McLaren, as he just seems unable to match Norris’ performances.
He was only 17th in qualifying, to Norris’ exceptional seventh place, and finished in the same position despite his team trying every possible strategy to make him recover.
Ricciardo struggled to overtake and also lost places in the process, which made even more evident the struggles he has at the moment.
Nicholas Latifi – 4
It was a weekend to forget for the Canadian driver, who was the only lapped car of the race, never looking like he could be in contention with any of the other drivers.
He suffered an issue in qualifying, but the rest of the weekend didn’t look too sharp, as he finished every session in P20.
Valtteri Bottas – 5.5
Whilst he was running in 13th place, still ahead of Zhou, Bottas has to do more against a rookie teammate, as he is not making the same difference as he was at the start of the season.
The car isn’t helping, as Bottas encountered is second successive Q1 elimination, after an endless streak of at least Q2 appearances, and his third consecutive retirement.
Yuki Tsunoda – 4.5
Tsunoda’s weekend wasn’t bad, driving wise, but the incident on Sunday was of shared faults between him and the team, and had potentially dangerous consequences.
He managed to get a Q3 appearance and was running a decent P11, which is just the best he could have done, considering the car’s pace.
However, once out of the pit lane, Tsunoda stopped on track thinking there would be an issue, partially unfastening the seatbelt, before progressing to race an entire lap at slow speed.
He came out of the pits again, racing at slow speed, before triggering a virtual safety car after coming to a halt and having a large influence on the outcome of the race.
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