Despite rain and red flag, Verstappen takes ninth straight win at Zandvoort!

Formula 1 is back, and the first race after resumption is marked by chaos: in the 72 laps of the Dutch Grand Prix we had rain (two times), Safety Car and a red flag. But the final verdict is always the same: Max Verstappen wins and takes his ninth consecutive victory, an event that has happened only once so far in the history of Formula 1, when in 2013 Vettel (on his Red Bull, ironically) strung together the same number of race wins between the Belgian GP and the Brazilian GP.

Let's start with our usual analysis, starting from the final results of the race in Zandvoort:

With the sudden rain after the start, strategies quickly became key

Deciphering yesterday's race without talking about strategies would simply be impossible, since the most important results (see Gasly's podium on Alpine) have been built on this element. So let's make good use of the infographic provided as usual by Pirelli, to rewind the tape and examine everything happened.

At the start of the Grand Prix, the teams' radars provided a sinister forecast: a downpour of rain just one minute after the lights went out. The criticality lies in the fact that starting with the Intermediates would have been in any case not recommended, as it would have relegated a driver to the bottom of the field; on the other hand, starting on the Softs made life difficult for everyone, since the dry conditions lasted less than one single lap.

Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Thus, at the end of the first lap, some teams decided to call their drivers in, to risk a tyre change and fit a set of Intermediates: among these we find Gasly, Perez, Lawson, Magnussen, Tsunoda, Zhou and Leclerc. The latter, however, suffered a very slow pit stop from his mechanics, who - taken by surprise by Charles' call - took over 13 seconds to replace his tyres, being the latters not yet ready when the Monegasque came in.

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Other teams opted for a pit stop at the end of the second or third lap, also basing their choice on the sector times set by their teammates, already on track on the Intermediates: this is the case of Verstappen, Alonso, Sainz, Hamilton, Norris, Ocon, Stroll and Russell.

Taking big risks with dry tires on a wet track, only Albon, Piastri, Hulkenberg, Bottas and Sargeant avoided any pit stop, in the hope - which later materialized - that the asphalt would dry quickly at the end of the rain shower. It was a good call, since the tarmac at Zandvoort is really very effective in terms of draining the water. It can be said that the time lost on the track fighting with the poor grip was returned to the 5 drivers mentioned in the form of 45-50 seconds lost by all the others due to the double Soft - Intermediate - Soft pit stop.

For those watching the Grand Prix from home, this sequence of pit stops meant an overhaul of the positions compared to the starting ones: look how the situation changed from lap 1 to lap 5!

In any case, not all 72 laps were as frantic as the first ones: on lap 17 Sargeant's accident (the second crash of the weekend after the one in qualifying) and the resulting race neutralization with the Safety Car gave way to all to have the same strategy. From that moment until lap 60, the drivers were able to show their pace, completing two stints without further neutralizations; before analyzing that phase of the race, however, a clarification on the Williams driver's accident is needed.

Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

On the web there was talk of an anomaly in the braking system as the cause of Sargeant's crash: the hypothesis is supported by the message "BBW fail" (Brake by Wire fail) that appeared on the dashboard of the crashed Williams FW46. Therefore, it cannot be said that the crash was only due to a driving error by Logan; the abovementioned fail could have been a consequence of the impact with the barriers, as well as its cause!

The Brake by Wire system, in fact, is bound in its operation to the integrity of the braking system, since it's the latter that is controlled by the BBW system. When - following a crash - there's a loss of fluid from the braking circuit, the relative sensors read a drop in pressure and also disable the Brake by Wire actuator. What has been described explains the origin of the confusion in this regard.

Dry stints rewarded Aston Martin and Alpine, to the detriment of Ferrari and McLaren

Returning to the analysis of the race, as mentioned, the dry phase made it possible evaluate the real pace of the cars: those who came out strengthened - Red Bull aside - were Aston Martin and Alpine: if Gasly's podium was achieved thanks to his excellent strategic execution at the start of the race, the pace set to maintain the position initially seized was no less.

Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

In fact, Pierre got the better of Sainz with a great overtaking on the outside shortly after the Spaniard had had to give up third position to Alonso (an overtake made necessary by a slow pit stop of the Aston Martin mechanics, which have been very reactive so far in 2023).

Dutch GP - Race pace analysis in dry conditions

Dutch GP - Race pace analysis in dry conditions

The laptimes macroscopically show how behind Verstappen, the pace of Alonso and Perez wasn't dissimilar; the third group, including Gasly and Sainz as mentioned, lapped on average with a couple of tenths per lap ahead of the Williams of Albon, author once again of an amazing race which saw him ending up in the points.

Further back, the two McLarens of Norris and Piastri, together with Hamilton's Mercedes, didn't set exceptional laptimes, especially given the form exhibited by the team from Woking in free practices and in qualifying... A different situation for George Russell and his W14, which I wanted included in the graph because he was author of a comeback allowed by a rather smart strategy: finding himself at the back of the field after the Safety Car period, the Mercedes pitwall chose to fit a set of Hard tyres. Hadn't it been for the rain at the end of the race, George would have kept that tyre set until the chequered flag.

Another rainstorm: a real downpour caused the red flag

With about 10 laps to go, a violent downpour hit Zandvoort, this time with a decidedly higher intensity than the rain that had soaked the first laps of the race.

Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

FIA correctly opted to interrupt the race with a red flag, also because the Zandvoort circuit is not so generous in terms of gravel traps; despite this, we still witnessed a series of drivers (Bottas, Perez, Hamilton) going wide and even the crash of Guanyu Zhou in his Alfa Romeo, author up to that moment of a Sunday beyond the possibilities of his single-seater.

Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

After the interruption, the race resumed with a rolling start to dispute the last 8 laps on the Intermediates: in that situation there were few changes of position at the top, whereas there was a close fight between Sainz's Ferrari and Hamilton's Mercedes, with the latter unable to get the better of the Spaniard, who was on a set of badly worn tyres.

Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

The Dutch Grand Prix thus ended with the positions attached at the beginning of this article.

Another disastrous race for Leclerc in this unlucky 2023

Before concluding our analysis, we have to mention the (unlucky) outcome of Charles Leclerc's Sunday. In addition to the aforementioned slow pit stop on the first lap, his race at Zandvoort saw a contact with Piastri's McLaren, following which he lost several downforce points. It was pretty useless to change the front wing (who had the right endplate missing), as the bulk of the damage was in the underfloor area - as we know, an extremely sensitive portion of this generation of single-seaters.

Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Charles returns home from Holland with zero points, which sees him once again behind his teammate Sainz in the Drivers' Standings, who - to be honest - had the cleanest of the races. The good or bad luck of Leclerc and Sainz are deciding the internal battle at Ferrari, while in the Constructors' Championship the designated rivals of Aston Martin and - above all - Mercedes are gradually becoming more and more unreachable...

What the podium finishers said before the back to back with the Italian GP

"I'm very happy... The weather didn't make my life easy today, it wasn't easy at all to make the right decisions. I already had goosebumps when they played the national anthem before the start, and despite the rain the fans showed us an incredible warmth [...] We'll think about the tenth victory next week, now it's time to enjoy this success!"

Max Verstappen

"Sometimes the results obtained by Verstappen are underestimated: winning in such a dominant way in any professional sport is very complicated [...] We drivers have a lot of confidence in ourselves, so I think I would do just as well... I don't I know if Lewis Hamilton would do the same, but I do [laughs, ed]. You have to reach a state of total connection with the car: today, for example, I got 100%, while at Spa and the previous weekends I didn't [...] Double overtaking in corner 3 on the first lap? In FP1 or FP2 it was wet and on one of the out laps I gave way to some cars on the normal race line, finding a lot of grip on the inside in Turn 3 by pure chance. All weekend I kept in mind what could happen there in wet conditions, and on the first lap I thought everyone would be a little more cautious there, because outside the bank the Aramco advertising makes the road very slippery if you go off the ideal line. So I figured throwing myself in and holding tight might work, and it did. It should be the overtaking of the month, or at least I hope so!"

Fernando Alonso

"I was quite angry about the 5 second penalty imposed at the start of the race... Then of course I tried to push hard to stay within the five seconds, and we succeeded. It was a very long and demanding race from start to finish, but it was performed brilliantly by all the guys. It's obviously very satisfying when you get a reward for the work we are all putting in as a team"

Pierre Gasly

After the Dutch event, the Circus moves to Monza, where the Italian Grand Prix is scheduled for this weekend. See you later in the week to comment on what will happen in the Temple of Speed!

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