Championship leader Max Verstappen dominated the start after the safety car came out to cruise to victory at Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix in front of 100,000 fans and take four wins in a row for the first time in his top-flight career. .
The Dutchman’s 10th win equaled his total from last year and the Red Bull driver increased his championship lead to 109 points. With seven races remaining, the chance of a second consecutive championship is growing for the Dutchman, as his pursuers — Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Mexican Sigue Perez — continue to fall behind.
Britain’s George Russell finished second for Mercedes, ahead of Leclerc, while Lewis Hamilton finished fourth.
Verstappen seemed headed for a comfortable victory when the safety car appeared on lap 56 following an engine failure for Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.
Verstappen changed tires and was behind the leading Hamilton with 12 laps to go.
But the Briton had medium mix tires which are slower, while the Dutchman was running on a soft mix which is faster and he had no problem leaving Hamilton behind, just like he did at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix of the last season that defined the title for the Red Bull midfielder.
Hamilton misjudged his restart and Verstappen easily passed him to a huge applause from the Dutch fans. The local also got an additional point by signing the fastest lap.
Annoyed, Hamilton took it out on his team by swearing over the radio to tell them he wasn’t happy he hadn’t changed tires with the safety car on track.
Hamilton appeared to go too far under braking when he was passed by Russell and they nearly collided. Hamilton could not contain his frustration and returned to hurling insults over the radio.
The situation worsened when Leclerc overtook him in third position to save the day for Ferrari, which was unable to reduce the most basic errors.