Zandvoort: The Rundown (F1)

Free Practice...

FP1:

Against the backdrop of the beautiful beach, we got underway in Zandvoort - the wind and the banked corners being the main challenges for our brave drivers. The drivers were in for a treat, although most of them had driven the famous Dutch circuit before, none had experienced the pure speed and rollercoaster feel of the banked corners in a modern Formula One car.

One driver, Yuki Tsunoda, was at a slight disadvantage coming into the weekend. Yuki had no experience at Zandvoort at all, being the only driver with this unfortunate title. With this, it was not surprising that while finding the limits of the track, he spun out straight out of the pitlane.

However Yuki could be comforted that some of his more experienced counterparts also spun, one being Esteban Ocon who took to the escape road to rejoin the track.

Sebastian Vettel was very excited to drive this old school circuit but was disappointed when a power unit problem quickly brought his session to an end, stopping on track with smoke emerging from all ports. Seb pulled out some impressive firefighting skills in an attempt to cool down his AMR21 before his engineers could see what the problem was, showing once again that Seb is a talented driver with many skills up his sleeve. The red flag was flown as the marshalls tried to get his car off the track, usually a quick 10 - 15 minute job. However Sebastian's car was stuck in what is known as “ERS state alpha”, an engine mode which meant the car was still electrically live and could pose a threat to the marshalls should they touch it.

After a hefty reduction to running time, 37 minutes to be exact, the cars could get back on track as the Aston Martin was taken back to the garage for examination.

With 6 minutes to go, Lando Norris took a quick trip to the gravel and then was run off the road and onto the grass by Esteban Ocon who didn’t see him at turn 14 - luckily no damage was dealt and the session ended with Hamilton taking the lead of the session.

Home hero Max Verstappen couldn’t quite get a good lap together with red flags and traffic always getting in the way, so he settled for P2 with the Ferrari boys close behind in P3 for Carlos Sainz and P4 for Charles Leclerc. The Alpines were looking strong with a P6 / P7 finish while the Mclarens were seemingly off the pace with P11 for Norris and P14 for Ricciardo.

Yuki Tsunoda ended the session last due to not setting a time at all, however there was still 2 hours of practice to go.

FP2:

The story of the session: Lewis Hamilton stopped on track with another Mercedes power unit issue- adding to Sebastian Vettel’s power unit which had issues in FP1. After stopping on track Lewis headed back to the garage to sit next to Toto for the rest of the session, slightly annoyed he’d missed some valuable runtime.

After a short delay the timing screens lit up with faster and faster times, the orange army eager to see Max Verstappen go right to the top of the sheets. However, with half an hour gone it was Esteban Ocon who went top in his Alpine. He surely had confidence tackling the banked corners, taking some notes from Fernando who seemed to have taken to the track naturally.

And of course with a practice session, there’s usually some spins as drivers find the limits and who else to spin then the one and only Nikita Mazepin. He lost the rear mid corner and ended up beached in the gravel trap, bringing out yet another red flag as his stranded car was winched up and off the track.

Monza is next weekend but the Tifosi certainly would be happy with the Ferrari duo in FP2 as the pair took advantage of Hamilton’s missed running and went 1-2 with Leclerc leading by 0.015 over Sainz. Verstappen stayed in the top 5 again suffering from traffic and red flags ruining his hot laps which were more than good enough for top of the pack.

FP3:

FP3 saw a nasty crash for Carlos Sainz as he pushed hard for his qualifying simulations. The banked corner catching him out as a front and then rear impact reduced his FP3 running to pretty much nothing. Luckily, Carlos walked away with no injuries but a bruised ego. All eyes were on the mechanics to quickly repair and replace pieces of the car before qualifying started especially with the championship fight between Mclaren and Ferrari heating up - this qualifying which Sainz may miss out on is crucial for asserting dominance over the other team.

The poor polystyrene boards were getting a bit of a beating this weekend with Sebastian Vettel running wide and taking out a DRS marker board which was promptly replaced before the end of the session. Gravel was spewed into the cockpit of his Aston Martin and his tyres were slightly damaged but the car was able to continue. He had another moment on one of the banked turns having to counter steer to avoid crashing in a similar way to Sainz, luckily he managed to avoid the wall and keep going.

It was a change driver wise as Alfa Romeo, with Kimi Raikkonen testing positive for COVID-19 overnight he was unable to compete in this week's Grand Prix. This left Robert Kubica to step in, 2 years after his last Grand Prix appearance. And of course F1 Twitter went mad with the “giga kubica” memes but I think we’re all happy to see him back in the cockpit after the career he’s had (and hopefully it could be a little reward after coming so close to winning Le Mans only to breakdown on the last lap!). He only had an hour in a car he is vastly inexperienced in so it was a pleasant surprise that he finished P19 ahead of Mick Schumacher.

Max leaving nothing on the table topped the session, sending the orange army into an absolute frenzy with his blistering pace. Their party atmosphere would only grow throughout the weekend and of course it was wonderful to see.

A few good performances in the midfield, again the Alpines looking good around this track with Fernando in P5 at the chequered flag. The Aston Martins, Alpine’s rivals, were also strong with a P7 / P8 finish to the session.

However, this track looks to be one of surprises so without further ado - onto qualifying!

Qualifying...

With Carlos Sainz’ crash in FP3, we were left with the unknown. The red flag disrupted much of the session, and an unpredictable midfield was perhaps made even more unpredictable. It would be a rush for the Ferrari mechanics to ensure that the Spaniard had a car out on track for Q1, and that it ran smoothly (they don’t want a repeat of Charles Leclerc in Monaco). Even if he did emerge from his garage, there was the possibility of a grid penalty if Sainz was forced to take a new gearbox.

Slightly further up the order, Mercedes were looking for a strong qualifying, regardless as to whether it would upset the Dutch crowd- very obviously present to support countryman Max Verstappen. Zandvoort is a winding track with 14 corners, which would likely present an advantage to Red Bull with their downforce levels, though Sector 3 could provide Mercedes with an opportunity to use their strong engine power and aerodynamics with the straight between Turn 12 and 13, and the start / finish straight out of Turn 14. Zandvoort is also a tricky track to make those overtakes, which was proven in W Series and Formula 3 - so qualifying would be crucial in the Mercedes and Red Bull battle.

Q1:

As is tradition in a qualifying session, the backmarkers emerged from the pits first, Mazepin at the front. Their best chance of making Q2 was of course with the softs, and many other cars also followed suit. Mercedes were the only team to opt for the medium tyre.

A massive cheer echoed around the circuit when Max Verstappen arrived on track, and he certainly felt their support in the noise and presence from the grandstands that surrounded the Zandvoort circuit. His benchmark would be Latifi, who was temporarily at the top of the timesheets, but was certain to be usurped by the Dutchman who went 5 tenths quicker than Latifi. Inevitably, the home favourite would wind up first, with his teammate Perez backing him up. This wouldn’t be the situation for long however, as Bottas split the Red Bulls and Hamilton then edged his teammate out for P2, 0.147 seconds behind his rival.

Away from the main battle, Gasly and Giovinazzi were the drivers showcasing strong, optimistic pace in P3 and P7. The surprise of the midfield were the McLarens, who seemed to be struggling to secure themselves a safe space on the board. Lando Norris, who may still have been suffering the aftereffects of his nasty crash last week, at a physically challenging Dutch circuit, was still expected to be higher than P8 and even best of the rest. Ultimately, it became a struggle between Aston Martin and the papaya team to scrape through to Q2 as the track continued to ramp up. As George Russell continued to do his thing on Saturday and improved to P5, Daniel Ricciardo was demoted to P16, giving his fans another anxious wait. Luckily, the Australian improved to a relatively safe P6, as his team’s championship rivals Ferrari made it a 1-2. Giovinazzi was the main surprise, going the fastest in Sector 1 and landing himself in P4 ahead of both Mercedes- perhaps a surprise when you consider he has no contract for next year amid the driver market rumours circulating the paddock.

Surprisingly, the track continued to ramp up, and improvements came in thick and fast as the session came to its end. It left Vettel, Norris and Perez hovering about the dropzone. Stroll would push his teammate down, and Norris would leapfrog Perez to a dangerous P15, but luck was certainly on his side. Perez and Vettel would both experience traffic- Vettel was blocked on his flying lap by two Haas cars in team order confusion, and Perez would blame some controversial queueing in the pitlane as the reason for missing the chequered flag.

When all the Q1 action met its conclusion, the top 15 were separated by a small 0.660 seconds, emphasising the track changes and the competition in the midfield. Missing out was Perez, Vettel, Kubica (not a major surprise despite Giovinazzi’s grand performance), Schumacher and Mazepin.

The incident between Mazepin, Schumacher and Vettel was investigated after the race and all involved convened with the stewards. Although it was Vettel who had the right to be the most frustrated, Mazepin appeared to be the most affected, blaming the Haas team for not following team procedures. Eventually nobody was punished, with the stewards particularly noting a comment from Sebastian Vettel: “there were too many cars in one place”.

Q2:

After experiencing the unfortunate circumstances traffic and timing can produce, Red Bull sent Verstappen out quickly, along with both Williams drivers who managed to escape Q1. Verstappen quickly set his benchmark of 1:09.071, which could not be beaten by the Mercedes (though they were using old soft tyres), but the one weapon Mercedes did have was a reliable tow from a teammate- unlike Max.

Ferrari continued their steady form, and fortunately for Carlos Sainz, it appeared that his mechanics had managed to repair his car to top standard. After their first runs, the pair sandwiched Mercedes with Leclerc in P2 and Sainz in P5.

After the first runs, everyone returned to the pits, and though there was no engine noise, the Dutch fans made their presence known. Eventually, it was Williams who were first to return to the track, and Russell was the first car to begin another flying lap. The lap began promisingly, with the Brit favoured for Mercedes setting personal bests in Sector 1 and 2, until a possible gust of wind caught him out at Turn 13, pivoting him into the gravel and bashing the rear end of his car. The session was quickly red-flagged, with the expectation Russell’s car would have to be recovered, but George was able to dig himself out of the gravel trap and limp back to his garage.

Q2 resumed after some marshalls tidied up any gravel on track, with Latifi undeterred by his teammate’s mistake as he headed out first, willing to sacrifice track evolution. However, the red flags were quickly waved once again when the Canadian also beached his car in the gravel at Turn 8, with the wall absorbing a much heavier impact than the previous incident. Nicholas responded over the radio that he was okay after his shunt, although his quiet voice certainly reflected the shock and despondent feeling. After replays, we saw that perhaps being distracted by the sudden appearance of a Mercedes in front of him, Latifi dipped a wheel on the grass which sent him into the wall.

With less than two minutes to go on the clock, race control confirmed the session would not be restarted. Though that meant less track action, it certainly didn’t deprive us of storylines. In a shocker, Lando Norris was eliminated in P13 with Russell in P11, Stroll P12, Latifi P14 and Tsunoda P15. Giovinazzi put in another super performance to continue into Q3.

Q3:

With Lando eliminated, it was down to Daniel Ricciardo to bring a brighter line to McLaren’s day, and he came out first with Giovinazzi behind. However, with more queueing in the pitlane as drivers attempted to create gaps, it was likely Ricciardo would experience a significant amount of traffic.

For the fans, all eyes were on Verstappen and his closest challengers: Mercedes. His first lap certainly made him deserving of provisional pole as he broke into the 1:08s with 1:08.923. Behind, neither Bottas in P2 or Hamilton in P3 could break into the same class. Gasly and the Ferraris were in a fight for P4 to P6, and behind again the difference in old versus new tyres was obvious. Giovinazzi, Ricciardo and Ocon, all on old tyres, made up the top ten.

As the drivers were released for their final runs, Verstappen found himself in an unideal spot as cars slowly edged themselves out of the pits. More importantly, however, he was not last, and his challengers Hamilton and Bottas were behind him. Hamilton would likely experience traffic- if he could reach the chequered flag in time.

The Dutch fans were keen to give the F1 crowd and the fans at home a show as they supported Max on his final lap. Though Max didn’t improve his first sector, he went purple in Sector 2, and eventually improved his time- without even utilising DRS in Sector 3! It would be down to Mercedes to upset the Dutchman and the orange army, but Bottas failed to improve, and though there was improvement for Hamilton it only earnt him P2. Verstappen would line up on the grid on Sunday at the front for his home Grand Prix, to the delight of his fans. Max certainly didn’t need boss Christian Horner to confirm his pole position if he could hear the crowd’s roar.

The only downside to the Dutchman’s Saturday is that he would be out there on his own, with his teammate near the back of the grid and his championship rival supported by his own teammate. Rounding out the top ten would be Gasly, Leclerc, Sainz, Giovinazzi, Ocon, Alonso and Ricciardo.

“I’m really annoyed to be honest. How the rules in a Formula 1 team works, one weekend you’re the first car, next weekend you’re the second car. This weekend it was my turn to be the first car.” - Nikita Mazepin (referencing the Q1 incident)

“I pushed too hard. I knew that lap would have been just good enough to promote me into the top 10 at that point in time. My tyres were over the limit, and I knew I had to attack the last corner to keep that speed up onto the straight – but ultimately I went too far.” - George Russell

The Race...

The last time Formula One made an appearance in Zandvoort was in 1985, in which Lauda claimed victory, but this year the re-designed track is back on our calendars and it was clear the fans missed it. The stands, a sea of orange in support of the Dutchman himself- Max Verstappen-were loud and set the perfect tone for an exciting return to the track.

With Max on pole and Hamilton just behind him, the first few laps were going to be tense, especially since this is the first time they have locked out the front row since Silverstone this year. However, battles were to be seen all the way down the grid, with Perez desperate to make up the places he lost for traffic in qualifying the previous day, Norris and Vettel eager to get back into points positions as well as the Williams of Russell and Latifi craving the feeling of points as they had the previous two races.

The top ten all started on soft tyres, joined with Tsunoda, Vettel, Stroll and Schumacher. Meanwhile Perez was the only driver to start on the hard compound while the remaining five drivers (Norris, Latifi, Kubica, Mazepin & Russell) all started on mediums.

After an uneventful formation lap, the cars lined up on the grid, and were ready to go. As lights out arrived, Verstappen pulled away expertly, holding his position into Turn 1, with both Mercedes holding their places behind him. Giovanazzi was the only car to start dropping positions from seventh to tenth. By the second lap, Max had pulled to over a whole second ahead of Hamilton and started getting comfortable with his lead.

As the third lap began, thick smoke was seen from the back of car number 3 - Daniel Ricciardo - now in tenth. Thought to be from the exhaust, McLaren deemed Daniel safe to carry on the race. George Russell behind him voiced his concerns to his own team, making sure they were aware what was happening, but Ricciardo was able to continue the race with no problems.

Onto lap 4, and Verstappen had more than doubled his lead, with Hamilton now behind by 2.3 seconds. Hamilton just couldn't seem to catch up to him, yet. Although, battles could still be seen on track, as on lap 5, Ocon and Alonso began fighting each other for seventh place.

Lap 25 finally came around and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull of Verstappen both decided to pit, leaving Bottas out leading the race. The Finn was under the presumption of a one stop, hoping to keep the lead out in front for a while, meaning Lewis was likely on a two-stop strategy. On lap 26, though, this strategy appeared questionable as Max held a 4.2 second gap to Bottas, whose tyres were not holding up well. This battle continued for a good few laps, with Max eventually getting past on lap 31. Hamilton dropped slightly behind, trying to save as much of the tyres as he possibly could. Once overtaken, Bottas disappeared straight into the pits, leaving Hamilton to regain his second place.

On lap 34, Verstappen led only by 1.6 seconds, and George Russell was awarded a 5-second time penalty for speeding in the pit-lane on his earlier stop. From there, most of the midfield began pitting, with only Norris and Kubica yet to enter the pits.

AND WE HAD A SPIN! Vettel spun out at turn 3, on the banking, after trying to get the undercut on Kubica. He was able to recover the car and keep going, but not without dropping a few places.

For the front three, tactics were really coming into play, with Red Bull telling Max to push for the next 5 or so laps to pull ahead… but Mercedes pulled Lewis into the pits! It was a faster pit stop than his previous ones, a 2.5, and was back out, but straight into traffic! This meant the gap to Verstappen increased. Using this to their advantage, Red Bull pitted Max onto the hard compound to see him through to the end of the race, and he pulled out of the pits 3.2 seconds in front of Hamilton.

Despite his incredible qualifying place, Giovanazzi was falling down the ranks, and during lap 43, received a puncture and had to pit again, pulling out in P17. Following this, on lap 44, Mazepin pulled into the pits to retire from the race due to hydraulics issues. Hamilton also got the fastest lap on this lap, but the following saw him struggling to make his way through traffic.

The front 6 in qualifying seemed to be holding their positions in the race well, with not much changing up there at all, with the exception of the Alpines who had made their way up. Alonso was in seventh and Ocon in eighth on lap 50, but the Frenchman was struggling with a plastic bag in his brakes. Plastic would strike Alpine once again (remember Alonso in Bahrain?)

On lap 50, Tsunoda was called into the pits, with a problem being seen on the telemetry which forced him to retire. Onto lap 56, where Ricciardo was told to let Norris past as he was on fresher tyres, and the Australian complied, letting Norris free to charge ahead. However, Perez was also able to get past Ricciardo, meaning he was able to chase Norris down.

By lap 61, Hamilton had really started to show tyre problems, with the gap to Verstappen going from 1.8 seconds to 3.7. Meanwhile, further back on the grid, Alonso was closing the gap to Sainz, and Perez was closing the gap to Norris, promising some very exciting overtakes late in the race.

On lap 67, Perez finally made the overtake, the McLaren and RedBull making minor contact, but Perez took ninth. The stewards noted the contact between the drivers, with Perez complaining that what Norris did "wasn’t very fair".

Onto lap 68, where Bottas made another pit stop, likely for the fastest lap point, but on lap 70, he was told to abandon his attempt as fastest lap, but still managed to set it! Hamilton complained over team radio that he was in dire need of that point and pitted again, so he could have a go at the fastest lap. The final laps were quiet ones on track, but monstrously loud off-track, with the sea of orange all screaming for Verstappen as he crossed the line while the chequered flag was waved! The Dutchman claimed the win at his home Grand Prix! Hamilton secured second, as well as getting the fastest lap, meaning Verstappen now led the championship by 3 points. Bottas brought home third, with Pierre Gasly getting P4 with a nearly faultless drive! He was followed by Leclerc then Alonso, who did manage eventually to take Sainz, who got P7. The other Red Bull of Perez came home to a P8 finish (earning Driver of the Day too), with Ocon and Norris finishing off the top 10.

After the race, it was revealed Russell also retired, serving his 5-second penalty then subsequently retiring the car, meaning there were 3 retirements from the race in total.

Italy is up next, and with the excitement it provided last year, we can only hope for another heart-racing race. We can’t wait to see you there!