(Reuters) – Team by team analysis of Sunday’s Dutch Formula One Grand Prix at Zandvoort, round 15 of the 22-race season (listed in championship order):
RED BULL (Max Verstappen 1, Sergio Perez 5)
Verstappen won his home race from pole position for the second year in a row and with the fastest lap. It was the champion’s 10th win of the season, equalling last year’s haul with seven races to go, and fourth in a row. He now has a career 30 wins. Verstappen started on the soft tyre, switching to medium before reverting to softs when he pitted from the lead during the late safety car period. He retook the lead at the restart, with Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton on mediums. Perez struggled with tyre degradation in the first two stints and drove over a Ferrari wheel gun in the pits, without damage.
FERRARI (Charles Leclerc 3, Carlos Sainz 8)
Leclerc started on the front row after missing out on pole by 0.021 on Saturday. He made his second pitstop just before the lap 47 virtual safety car, which allowed both Mercedes drivers to get ahead in the pits. He passed Hamilton for third after the final safety car period. Sainz started third but a pitstop bungle, with the left rear tyre not ready, dropped him to sixth. He climbed back to fifth but a post-race time penalty for an unsafe release dropped him back to eighth.
MERCEDES (George Russell 2, Lewis Hamilton 4)
Hamilton started fourth on the medium tyres and held position at the start, when he and Sainz banged into each other without damage. He went second when the Ferraris pitted and took the lead when Verstappen came in on lap 19. The seven times champion pitted on lap 29 for hards and aiming for a one-stop strategy. That changed with the virtual safety car and he switched to fresh mediums. He then stayed out during the safety car period while others including Russell pitted. Russell made three stops, starting sixth on mediums, switching to hards and then softs to overtake Hamilton after the safety car.
ALPINE (Fernando Alonso 6, Esteban Ocon 9)
Another double points finish, the team’s fifth in a row, sent Alpine 24 points clear of McLaren. Ocon started 12th and moved up three positions on lap one, pitting for hards on lap 19 and then softs during the safety car. Alonso started 13th, overtook both AlphaTauris and pitted on laps 12 and 47. The Spaniard moved up to sixth thanks to Sainz’s penalty.
MCLAREN (Lando Norris 7, Daniel Ricciardo 17)
Norris started seventh and passed Russell into the first corner. He made three stops, losing out to Alonso when he pitted during the safety car period. Ricciardo started 17th and could not make any progress.
ALFA ROMEO (Guanyu Zhou 16, Valtteri Bottas retired)
Bottas triggered the safety car when he lost power and stopped on track before the last corner on lap 55. Zhou was handed a five second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
HAAS (Mick Schumacher 13, Kevin Magnussen 15)
Schumacher started eighth, Magnussen 18th. Schumacher was held up at his first stop on lap 13 with a front jack problem. Magnussen had a close encounter with the wall on lap two, skimming across the gravel and back on track in last place.
ALPHATAURI (Pierre Gasly 11, Yuki Tsunoda retired)
Tsunoda triggered the virtual safety car when he stopped with a mechanical problem after earlier suspecting a wheel had not been fitted properly. He was reprimanded for driving back to the pits with loosened seatbelts. Gasly struggled in traffic.
ASTON MARTIN (Lance Stroll 10, Sebastian Vettel 14)
Stroll made sure the team scored for the fourth race in a row, cutting the gap to AlphaTauri to four points. Vettel had a slow first pitstop and picked up a five second penalty for ignoring blue warning flags when he came out of the pits in front of Hamilton.
WILLIAMS (Alex Albon 12, Nicholas Latifi 18)
Albon started 15th with the team not expecting much from a circuit unlikely to suit their car. Latifi had a lonely race at the back.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Ken Ferris)
