Luke’s Weekend Review – Dutch GP 2023

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Dramatic Dutch Grand Prix: Verstappen Triumphs Amid Rain, Pit Drama, and Red Flags

Dutch GP 2023 4

And what a race we have just witnessed, we had all sorts of action in that race, from great overtakes, to Pit stop dramas to penalties to crashes and Red flags. What I thought was going to be just another win for Max Verstappen and everyone else just fighting for 2nd ended up being a quite entertaining one.

At the start all drivers opt to go for the softs apart from Lewis Hamilton who opted for the medium compound. At the start Max got away well and ensured that he covered Lando Norris off coming into the first corner and it was at this point where the drama started as it started raining on lap 1 quite heavily. Half the grid pit at the end of lap 1 to go in and put the inters on and it was here where Ferrari messed up Charles Leclerc as they weren’t ready for him with the inters dropping him from 9th to 17th after the pits. Sergio Perez on the other hand wasn’t messed up in the pits and he was flying through the grid and by lap 3 he was leading the race as Verstappen pits on lap 2.

After his pitstop, Max didn’t waste any time getting back to 2nd behind Perez and as the track started drying up on lap 11 teams started to think about slicks again, and Red Bull pulled the trigger with max pitting him on lap 12 and undercutting his teammate Perez where he was pitted on lap 13. From here on Max took the lead again leading in front of his home crowd. During the pit chaos we see Liam Lawson pick up a 10 second penalty for speeding in the pit lane and Pierre Gasly also picked up a 5 second penalty for the same reason. This was also due that the pit lane speed limit is 60km/h opposed to 80km/h like most tracks.

On lap 16 we see Logan Sargeant crash at turn 8 bringing out the Safety Car as he touched the wet part of the track and went straight into the barriers. During the safety car a number of drivers pit for a cheap stop, one to note was George Russell as he was on the radio saying to the team how badly they messed it up as he was forecasted for a podium and was running in 18th in the safety car. He opted to go for the Hard compound to potentially go to the end of the race and try and makeup a bit of the places they lost in the opening stages of the race.

Once the Safety car came in, Max was able to get a clean getaway and by the end of the lap he was already 1 second ahead of Perez so it seemed that he caught Perez napping a bit and from there, Max was able to keep a healthy and comfortable lead over his teammate who at the time after the Safety car restart was under pressure from Fernando Alonso which is probably another reason why Max was able to pull aways so much.

Charles Leclerc would probably like to put this race behind him and forget about it ASAP as from the start he was facing set back after setback. It all started with the very long pitstop were the pit crew was not ready with his tyres, then it was him going over the gravel between turn 11 and 12, then he made contact with Oscar Piastri and he lost his end plate on his front wing which lead him to lose 2 places in 3 corners on lap 26 where Piastri and Lewis Hamilton went past him in 3 corners. The final straw for Leclerc came on lap 42 as after a 2-lap battle with Lawson and Lawson manages to get past Leclerc for 15th, Ferrari call Leclerc to the pits to retire the car due to the damage. Safe to say that Leclerc’s return after the summer part didn’t go as he planned it to go.

Rain, Red Flags, and Intense Battles: Recap of the Dutch GP Drama at Zandvoort

At lap 41 Lando was trying to overtake Yuki Tsunoda, however Tsunoda was putting a masterclass defence and managed to keep Lando behind, so much so that after a 4-lap battle Lando decided to pit for fresh softs and drop down to 14th spot. After Lando pitted, this triggered a few other pits as both Perez and Hamilton pit on Lap 46. A couple laps later Alonso was also called in for fresh softs from 3rd spot and due to the front left not coming off immediately he had a very slow stop and came back out in 5th, this however didn’t stop Alonso from getting back to 3rd spot by lap 52 with some nice overtakes.

In the Dutch GP we have seen a lot of battles on track and some impressive overtakes but for me the standout driver was Oscar Piastri as he managed to pull some impressive overtakes on a few drivers throughout the race. A few other call outs go to Pierre Gasly as after a 2-lap battle with Sainz he was able to get past the Ferrari as well on lap 58 and this is where the race really got interesting again.

On lap 61 the long-promised rain had finally come, and it started pouring down and by lap 61 everyone started pitting but the one driver who lost a lot was Perez as he made a very late call and the pit crew was not ready for him with the tyres leaving Perez stationary for a long time. By lap 62 everyone was back on the inters barring Esteban Ocon as Alpine gambled and put him on the full wets. Ocon was not impressed by this decision as he was not going fast enough and started losing places.

The rain started getting heavier and it wasn’t long before Turn 1 was catching a few drivers out, Perez on lap 63 went straight on losing the rear as he locks out both front wheels and hits the barrier with the rear spoiler, he was able to get going again but he dropped to 3rd place behind Alonso. On lap 64 though Zhou Guanyu fell victim to Turn 1 and wasn’t as lucky as Perez as he went straight into the barriers bringing the Virtual Safety Car out momentarily and as soon as the FIA saw that a few other drivers were going straight on, they Red flagged the race in order to clear the track and wait for the rain to stop as the track was quite dangerous to drive on.

After the rain settled and the sun came out, the FIA stated that it will be a rolling restart after 2 laps under the Safety car and all cars must be on the inters which would have left us with about 5/6 laps of racing. On the restart Max again was able to get a clean getaway and stays ahead of Alonso. The FIA announced a 5 second penalty for Perez as he was caught speeding in the pitlane which meant that he was not going to be able to keep 3rd place. After the restart there was a few close battles and Russell had to limp back to the pits to retire after contact with Lando Norris, this was investigated by the stewards but deemed it to be a racing incident. Another battle in the closing laps was that between Hamilton and Carlos Sainz on the battle for 5th as we see Hamilton attack Sainz multiple times but was unable to get past him with Sainz holding 5th place.

The race finished with Max Verstappen taking the chequered flag followed by Fernando Alonso who is finally back on the podium and also taking Driver of the Day, then Pierre Gasly who inherited 3rd place due to the 5 second penalty of Sergio Perez who takes 4th place followed by Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, Alex Albon, Oscar Piastri and Esteban Ocon forming the top 10 spots.

This was a brilliant race to come back to from the summer break as it was one of the most entertaining, action-packed ones we had for a while. Who do you think was the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the Dutch GP? We now head to Italy for the Monza GP.

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