Status: 04.09.2022 5:50 p.m
Almost world champion at home: Max Verstappen has finally set course for his second title on the North Sea coast and gave the fans in orange a preliminary World Cup party. The Red Bull star won on Sunday (September 4th, 2022) in Zandvoort in front of Mercedes driver George Russell and Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari, it was Verstappen’s fourth win in a row – and his lead in the world championship rankings is now three digits for the first time in his career .
“It looked like a clear race, but we had to push all the time,” said Verstappen, “it’s always something very special to win your home Grand Prix, this time I had to work a little harder for it, even more so I’m happy now.”
Mick Schumacher, however, was slowed down by his own Haas racing team after team boss Günther Steiner had previously demanded good performance for a contract extension. The German qualified for a strong eighth place on the grid, but two pit stops that were far too long threw him back a long way. In the end, Schumacher was in 13th place without any points. Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin also experienced a disappointing race in 14th place.
Verstappen, on the other hand, continues to diligently collect points, it was his tenth win in the 15th race. He is 109 points ahead of his alleged pursuers: Leclerc continued to lose ground in Zandvoort, Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez is level with the Monegassen.
Preliminary decision in October?
And it’s a dramatically high gap: Even if Verstappen were to retire four more times in seven remaining races and Leclerc won all of those races, the Dutchman would still be ahead in any case. In October he can make the World Cup triumph prematurely perfect. “The gap is really big, we’re now thinking from race to race,” said Leclerc.
The atmosphere around the course in the dunes matched this mixed situation. Thousands of Verstappen fans travel the world all year round, and since last year they have finally had a home game in Zandvoort. There were more than 300,000 spectators throughout the weekend, the atmosphere a mixture of football stadium and darts world championship.
Party with bass and speed
Even the focused hustle and bustle on the starting grid was accompanied by booming bass: a DJ quickly set up his booth in the middle of the track.
The concentration was right at the start, there were no major incidents on the narrow track: Verstappen held his lead in front of the two Ferraris, behind him Lewis Hamilton remained fourth. Schumacher, who started on the harder tires, had to let two competitors with soft tires go and was initially in tenth place.
Schumacher and a tire lever theme
At the top, Verstappen and Leclerc dropped a little, but overall the three top teams Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes were at a similar level – the first stops then caused movement in the field: Ferrari had problems with Carlos Sainz, and before the Haas-Garage, Schumacher had to stand for endless seconds. The jack got stuck, the German was only able to continue after ten seconds, and the points were now a long way off.
Schumacher was initially stuck in 14th place, came halfway through the race to change tires again – this time it took five seconds, this time it was stuck on the right front. At that moment at the latest, the race was over for Schumacher.
Hamilton can’t hold the top
At the top, the Silver Arrows now became Verstappen’s toughest opponents. Thanks to a strong strategy, Hamilton was even ahead of the defending champion when a late safety car phase brought the field together again. At the restart, however, Verstappen had no trouble bringing back the lead, he passed in front of the main grandstand, Hamilton was passed through at the end – the rest was a big party in orange.
Source: sportschau.de