2023 Dutch Grand Prix | Six talking points

1. Verstappen survives two curveballs at Zandvoort

The first problem Verstappen had to negotiate did actually catch him out. As he made a strong start from pole position to see off any threat from Lando Norris’s McLaren, the rain was already landing. But he and his Red Bull team chose to stick it out, while team-mate Sergio Perez covered the team bases by coming in immediately for intermediate Pirellis. Good call. When Verstappen did pit he’d lost the lead – although it was little more than a hitch. Max rejoined fifth, which became second once those ahead also came in. He closed the gap on Perez, then undercut ahead when it was time to change to slicks. No sweat.

But he could have done without the deluge towards the end of the race. Verstappen had pitted for intermediates from his healthy lead, then came straight back in for full wets just as Zhou Guanyu took far too much speed into Tarzan in such conditions and crashed his Alfa Romeo. Red Flag. After a pause of nearly 45 minutes to allow the weather to quell, the race restarted for a six-lap sprint. Fernando Alonso was eyeing a first F1 win since 2013 – but around Zandvoort, Verstappen was never going to let this one slip. That ninth consecutive victory duly followed, his 11^th of the season, and now he leads the world championship by 138 points. Phenomenal.

2. Alonso’s “overtake of the month” at Zandvoort

That’s how the man himself described his move on George Russell on lap one, having already cut past Alexander Albon’s Williams. But Alonso was hardly boasting. In truth, it’s a contender for pass of the season, never mind the month.

The banked Turn 3 Hugenholtzbocht is one of the most fascinating corners in modern F1. Drivers tend to take a high, wide and handsome line at the top of the banking. But wily old Alonso sniffed an opportunity. He kept it low on lap one, then nailed his Aston Martin early and popped out ahead of Russell’s Mercedes. A lap later he was past Norris too, on a day when Aston proved it has bounced back from its mini mid-season slump. What a drive from the great man, as he came between Verstappen and Perez to claim a superb second place. He thought long and hard about doing something similar to Verstappen in the six-lap shootout, but when it didn’t happen on the first lap after the restart he knew his chance was gone. Still, runner-up was a great way to return from the summer break.

3. Perez and his swinging F1 fortune

The call to pit early was a great one. But Perez will have left Zandvoort frustrated by much of what played out in the Dutch GP. Verstappen’s ease of catching him was of little surprise, but clouting the pit wall later in the afternoon and earning himself a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane was ham-fisted. As for his off at Tarzan in the worst of the conditions… well, to be charitable the weather was atrocious and at least he recovered quickly. But the penalty was the mostly costly error because it bounced him off the podium.

The excellent Pierre Gasly just had to stay within five seconds during the final six-lap dash to gazump Perez. As the Frenchman pointed out, keeping a Red Bull on a leash should not be taken for granted, but Gasly and his Alpine were equal to the task of scoring his first podium in two years. Perez at least did enough to only drop a single place and was classified fourth, ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari.

4. Albon and Williams star again

He started fourth and finished eighth. But Alex Albon was still arguably the brightest star of the Dutch Grand Prix – behind Verstappen, of course. The London-born Thai had qualified superbly on the second row and was always likely to go backwards from there. But under ex-Mercedes strategist and new team boss James Vowles, Williams is a sharper operation than it has been for many a year. The team decided to keep Albon and Logan Sargeant out on slicks in the early rain, Albon brilliantly keeping his Williams on the island (which is more than be said for his American rookie team-mate).

Yes, he dropped places, but Alex soon made most of them up again when everyone stopped for slicks once the track dried. And Albon proved a Pirelli whisperer too, eking out a remarkable 44 laps from a set of red-walled softs. His outside pass of old mate Russell was a highlight, but stopping one lap too late when the rain returned dropped him from a likely sixth. Still, it says a lot about the progress at Williams that the team can admit to feeling slightly crestfallen to finish eighth. 

5. Tough afternoon for Mercedes…

Lewis Hamilton qualified poorly after a messy Saturday and then in the race Mercedes underestimated how much it would rain, waiting too long to pit both the seven-time champion and George Russell. Both tried variations on strategy, Russell ending up running long on a set of hards. He lost out in a small collision with Norris towards the end, while Hamilton found himself chasing Sainz for fifth. There was no way through, so sixth it was. All rather lowkey – and still no word on a fresh deal for next year. Could there still be a twist in Hamilton’s F1 story in the weeks to come?

6. … and also for McLaren

Norris was another to wait too long to switch to inters early in the race and soon his front-row start slot was a distant memory. He made a decent recovery once the race settled into dry conditions, pulling some nice moves to pull the McLaren back up the field. But the team would have been hoping for more than a seventh and ninth from Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri. At least they don’t have long to sweep the memory away. F1 heads straight to Monza this week for the next instalment and the Italian Grand Prix.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images