Formula 1 Dutch GP: Max Verstappen Red Bull on pole position

Formula 1 Dutch GP LIVE: Max Verstappen puts Red Bull on pole position for Dutch Grand Prix- Max Verstappen put Red Bull on pole position for his home Dutch Grand Prix in front of 70,000 ecstatic fans on Saturday. Formula One world championship leader Lewis Hamilton, three points clear of his rival in the standings, will join the Dutch youngster on the front
row for Mercedes.

On his first flying lap on soft tyres near the end of the 60-minute session, Verstappen set a blistering pace in the first two sectors, going purple in both before his conveniently-placed team mate Sergio Perez towed him neatly over the line to complete a clean sweep of fastest sector times.

That may have flattered Verstappen’s stunning time of 1m 09.623s a touch, but still put him a full 0.556s ahead of the Mercedes of Bottas.

Hamilton, meanwhile, was a further two-tenths behind his team mate in third, the seven-time champion making up for time lost during his FP2 stoppage, and with the engine he used last weekend at Spa now powering his Mercedes W12 as a replacement for his Friday unit.

Perez wound up P4, 0.903s behind his team mate, and just a tenth ahead of the impressively-placed Alpine of Fernando Alonso.

POSITION	TIME
1 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing	1:09.623
2 Valtteri BOTTAS Mercedes	+0.556s
3 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes	+0.794s
4 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing	+0.903s
5 Fernando ALONSO Alpine	+1.047s

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, meanwhile, completed just five laps in FP3 before he lost the rear end coming out of Turn 2, slewing across the track before making a heavy impact with the banked Turn 3 wall and bringing out the fourth red flag of the weekend so far – with Ferrari now facing a stiff challenge to get the Spaniard’s SF21 fixed in time for qualifying, as Sainz ended up P16.

Behind Alonso, McLaren’s Lando Norris survived a trip through the Turn 9 gravel to end up P6, ahead of the Aston Martin pairing of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel – Vettel enduring his own trip into the gravel at Turn 10 after being caught out by a tail wind.

The second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was ninth, Leclerc running off track at Turn 11 on a final quick lap, and finishing ahead of the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly who took P10.

One of the big news stories on Saturday morning was that Kimi Raikkonen had been side-lined after testing positive for Covid-19, his place taken by Robert Kubica. And Kubica did well in the circumstances to end up P19, and ahead of the Haas of Mick Schumacher, who ran through the Turn 11 gravel on his push lap.

Ahead of the Pole, Daniel Ricciardo was 11th for McLaren, ahead of the Williams of Nicholas Latifi, the Alpine of Esteban Ocon and the second Williams of George Russell in P14.

Kubica’s team mate Antonio Giovinazzi was P15 ahead of Sainz, with Yuki Tsunoda and Nikita Mazepin P17 and P18, ahead of Kubica and Schumacher.

Formula 1 Dutch GP: Charles Leclerc leads Ferrari 1-2 in second practice, as Lewis Hamilton completes just 3 laps

Blue skies and orange grandstands welcomed the drivers for second practice at Zandvoort, in which Charles Leclerc took P1 ahead of Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. Red proved to be the colour on Friday afternoon when Lewis Hamilton suffered an engine issue early on – bringing out the red flags – Mercedes’ championship leader finishing 11th fastest in this session.

After a lengthy halt on Friday morning for Sebastian Vettel’s engine issue, FP1 leader Hamilton encountered an oil system problem five minutes into FP2 to bring out an eight-minute pause in proceedings. That was followed by a red flag on the 30-minute mark when Nikita Mazepin beached his Haas in the Turn 12 gravel trap. The start of FP2 was also delayed by five minutes, but the full hour was allocated.

Cue friendly waves and raucous cheers from the home crowd as Hamilton was driven back to the paddock in the Medical Car, while rivals continued to lap on mediums. Softs were bolted on just before the half-way mark for a flurry of qualifying runs, which saw Leclerc eventually set the benchmark of 1m10.902s with Sainz second, 0.154s off his Ferrari team mate.

Alpine’s Hungary winner Ocon briefly led the standings and finished third overall ahead of Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas (P4). In P5 was home hero Max Verstappen, 0.362s off the pace without a clean flying lap, while Ocon’s Alpine team mate Fernando took P6.

POSITION	TIME
1 Charles LECLERC Ferrari	1:10.902
2 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari	+0.154s
3 Esteban OCON Alpine	+0.172s
4 Valtteri BOTTAS Mercedes	+0.230s
5 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing	+0.362s

As for AlphaTauri, Pierre Gasly enjoyed competitive pace in this session to take P7 and his team mate Yuki Tsunoda, who spun early in FP1 and missed even more of the session as a result, kept it clean in FP2 for P13.

Ferrari’s midfield rivals McLaren couldn’t keep the pace in FP2, with Lando Norris taking eighth and Daniel Ricciardo back in 15th.

That left Antonio Giovinazzi ninth for Alfa Romeo – who might play a significant role in the driver market – ahead of Sebastian Vettel in P10, who was hinted to be staying with Aston Martin for 2022 by team boss Otmar Szafnauer in the lunch break.

After stopping on track, Hamilton was left 11th in this session with just three laps under his belt for Mercedes, with Sergio Perez P12 for Red Bull and a second off the leading pace.

Lance Stroll took 14th for Aston Martin, between Tsunoda and Ricciardo, while soon-to-be-retiree Kimi Raikkonen finished 16th for Alfa Romeo.

The Williams and Haas pair finished in sequence, with Mick Schumacher 17th, Nicholas Latifi 18th, Schumacher’s team make Nikita Mazepin 19th (having stopped halfway through the session with an off at Turn 11) and George Russell last in 20th-place.

Formula 1 Dutch GP: Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton beats Max Verstappen in first practice- It was Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who got his Dutch Grand Prix weekend off to the best possible start, going fastest in Free Practice 1 as Formula 1 returned to Zandvoort for the first time since 1985, ahead of home hero Max Verstappen and the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz – as the session was foreshortened by a 35-minute red flag period caused by a stoppage for Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel.

As the drivers headed out onto the reworked 2.6-mile circuit, with F1 returning to the track after a 36-year absence, Yuki Tsunoda was the first to be caught out, spinning his AlphaTauri AT02 after just two minutes.

But it was Sebastian Vettel with the biggest problems in FP1, the German winding up P19 after running just six laps – during which he complained of an MGU-K issue – before pulling up with 16 minutes of the session gone after an “engine failure”, as he put it.

Vettel then acted as firefighter, as he grabbed an extinguisher to attempt to cool parts of his AMR21, as the session endured a 35-minute red flag period, as the car was recovered.

Also Read: Formula 1, Dutch GP 2021: Formula One returns to Dutch shores after 36 years

Formula 1 Dutch GP: Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton beats Max Verstappen in first practice

POSITION	TIME
1 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes	1:11.500
2 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing	+0.097s
3 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari	+0.101s
4 Charles LECLERC Ferrari	+0.123s
5 Valtteri BOTTAS Mercedes	+0.238s

With seven minutes to go in the session following Vettel’s red flag, there was then a mad scramble to complete soft laps around Zandvoort, with Hamilton stopping the clocks with a lap of 1m 11.500s to lead his first FP1 of the season.

The fans have flocked to Zandvoort for just one driver though. And Max Verstappen would finish just 0.097s behind his title rival in P2, as the Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc went P3 and P4, ahead of the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.

The Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were flying in formation, as they took sixth and seventh, as Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10.

McLaren’s Lando Norris had headed the running ahead of the red flag after his medium-shod run. But with Norris failing to improve on his soft tyre laps, and enduring a dip into the gravel at the old school Zandvoort track, the Briton ended up P11, ahead of the Williams of Nicholas Latifi.

Fresh from the announcement of his retirement from the sport at the end of the season, Kimi Raikkonen was 13th, ahead of the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo and star of Spa George Russell.

Sergio Perez was a lowly 16th for Red Bull, with more to come from the Mexican, as he finished just two-tenths clear of the Haas of Nikita Mazepin, himself three-tenths up on team mate Mick Schumacher.

After Vettel in 19th, Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the field, the Japanese driver setting just three laps before being consigned to his garage with an issue – painful, given that Tsunoda has never experienced the Dutch track before.

Formula 1 Dutch GP: Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton beats Max Verstappen in first practice

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