On Friday, the F1 community got the news we had all been waiting for: the results from the Contract Recognition Board in relation to the Alpine-Piastri-McLaren situation. The CRB ruled that McLaren’s contract was the only valid one for Oscar Piastri, ending that saga. Moments later, McLaren announced that Piastri would complete their driver line-up for the 2023 season alongside Lando Norris. The 2021 F2 champion will finally make his debut in Formula 1 next year.
Practice
Before that, in FP1, Mercedes showed much improvement from a disappointing weekend in Spa with a 1-2 finish in the session. Russell and Hamilton were followed by the Ferrari of Sainz in P3. Verstappen’s session came to an early end as his car stopped out on track with a transmission issue and brought out a red flag. Perez also found the session challenging, only managing P7. Meanwhile, it was a positive start to the weekend for McLaren in P4 and P5.
Ferrari were back in charge in FP2, a 1-2 for the team in red, Leclerc and Sainz were only split by four thousandths of a second, with Hamilton very close behind. The two young Brits; Norris and Russell completed the top five. Friday was just not their day over at Red Bull, clocking in times that put them in P8 and P12, a lot further behind than they would like.
Saturday morning saw Leclerc finish top of the charts but this was after the Monegasque hit the barriers during the session. He told the team that there was no damage as they made sure everything was alright for qualifying. Russell and Verstappen were P2 and P3, ahead of their teammates who completed the Ferrari-Mercedes-Red Bull top six.
Qualifying
The likes of Verstappen and Leclerc only needed one run to get them through to Q2. Hamilton and others needed to go again to secure their safety, this included Tsunoda who took P3 and Stroll in P7. It wasn’t so pleasant for the other Aston Martin for Vettel, who had been struggling for the majority of the weekend. He was down in 19th and out of Q1 again when he was taken aback by the dust on the track on his final lap, losing his rear tyres and running wide just as he was setting an improved time. Following him out was Bottas, Magnussen, Ricciardo and Latifi.
An orange flare interrupted the running in Q2, bringing out a red flag to clear it off the track. Verstappen set the fastest time at the start of the session but was kicked off the top spot by Sainz who had gone for a second run, while Verstappen stayed in the garage with just the one under his belt on used soft tyres. Stroll and Schumacher impressed, taking their teams to Q3, along with Tsunoda who made it seven different teams taking part in Q3. Those who were not successful were Gasly, Ocon, Alonso, Zhou and Albon.
In the top 10 shoutout, we saw Verstappen first set the quickest time as expected, but Leclerc then beat that time, and Hamilton was not too far off the pace in P3. Stroll sat in the garage, setting no time as the team found a technical issue with his car. Leclerc lead them out for the final flying laps; improving his time but losing out to Verstappen in the middle sector which ultimately gave the Dutchman pole position by 0.021s. Sainz completed his lap taking him to P3 but a spin from Perez late in his lap brought out a yellow flag, halting the others from progressing their times.
Top 10 qualifying order: Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Perez, Russell, Norris, Schumacher, Tsunoda, Stroll.
Race Report
The 2022 Dutch Grand Prix was once again extremely kind to its home driver Max Verstappen, who for the second year running was the victor of the circuit. He was joined on the podium by George Russell in second place with (a much stronger than we’ve seen) Mercedes, and Charles Leclerc in third place for Ferrari.
British driver Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth place for Mercedes but for one of the first times this year, had the potential to finish much higher, if not on the top step of the podium. Alas, this wasn’t meant to be this weekend, due to unpredictable safety cars and subsequent tyre changes.
While Charles Leclerc was able to finish on the podium for Ferrari, teammate Carlos Sainz had a much more difficult weekend. While he finished in fifth place on track, a five-second penalty due to an unsafe release after pitting under the safety car. An exceptionally long pit stop early in the race had already left him at a disadvantage, leaving the Dutch Grand Prix as one to forget for the Spanish driver.
A particularly strong day for Alpine saw drivers Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon finish in fifth and ninth place respectively. Fernando Alonso is currently on a points-finishing streak of ten races, and we are extremely excited to see if this continues, and helps the team in their battle for fourth in the Constructor’s Championship with McLaren.
Speaking of McLaren, it was another strong showing for British driver Lando Norris, who finished the race in eighth place, skilfully battling the Alpine drivers throughout the day. However, it was a disappointing day for Daniel Ricciardo, who finished in seventeenth place for the team, who have elected to replace him for the 2023 season.
One particularly surprising performance on Sunday was that of Lance Stroll for Aston Martin. In a car that has failed to impress this year, the Canadian driver was able to finish in tenth place, earning a valuable point for the team and showing a good amount of skill. Teammate Sebastian Vettel was only able to finish in fourteenth place for the team, although this was still an improvement over their typical finishing positions.
Pierre Gasly finished in eleventh place for Alpha Tauri, showing his clear and persistent talent amid rumours that the French driver is being sized up by other teams. It was an unfortunate DNF for his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who retired due to an issue which was first perceived as a tyre failure, but was later revealed to be an issue with the differential.
An excellent top ten start for Haas driver Mick Schumacher was unfortunately not converted into a points finish for the German driver, who was only able to finish in thirteenth place following a slow pitstop. Teammate Kevin Magnussen was only able to finish in fifteenth place, meaning Haas left Zandvoort without having gained any points.
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