World drivers championship leader Max Verstappen took his fourth Formula One race in succession at an action-packed Dutch Grand Prix as he continues to edge ever closer to another world title.

During a chaotic race which saw a late safety car close the pack together with less than ten laps to go, Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton on the restart to claim the 30th race victory of his career so far.

MAX VERSTAPPEN WINS AT ZANDVOORT!!!

What an incredible race that was! 😵

Russell takes second place with Leclerc finishing third#DutchGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/NO0f0nJjss

- Φόρμουλα 1 (@F1) September 4, 2022

ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ: Η ΑΕΡΟΔΥΝΑΜΙΚΉ ΜΙΑΣ ΠΊΣΩ ΠΤΈΡΥΓΑΣ ΤΗΣ F1 - CFD EXPLAINED IN MOTORSPORT

Mixed emotions for Mercedes

Second place is far more than Russell would have been expecting after Perez’s spin grounded him to sixth on the grid in qualifying and Russell deserves great credit for making it happen.

It was he who overruled his Mercedes team and boldly made the call to pit and concede second place to Verstappen. This switch to the soft tyres gave him far superior grip to his team-mate who he easily cast aside – albeit via nearly running into the back of Hamilton such was his pace advantage.

Hamilton had too solid a weekend to end up off the podium, but he’s been on the other end of the vagaries of VSC/SC timing enough in his career to the point where it’s hard to feel this was that big an injustice.

On another note, though, while the radio messages that followed didn’t exactly cover Hamilton in glory, he said the exact right things with a cooler head after the race – something the Mercedes rank-and-file are likely to appreciate, regardless of what Toto Wolff said about the team’s “vomit bag on an aeroplane” role.

Lewis is FUMING with Mercedes 😳 pic.twitter.com/ot9zqNEmFn

— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) September 4, 2022

ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ: ΤΙ ΕΊΝΑΙ Η ΓΩΝΊΑ ΚΆΣΤΕΡ;

CARLOS SAINZ AND FERRARI

Both sides dropped the ball here, although Ferrari did it in a much more spectacular fashion.

From the shocking rushed first pitstop to the unsafe release that left Sainz lobbying desperately – and not very convincingly – on the radio, the race on the Spaniard’s side was not executed well in the least.

But he was also just not very fast at all, suffering with overheating and a difficult rear end, and sinking like a bag of stones in the first stint versus a much faster Leclerc on a day on which the Ferrari package anyway just didn’t look good.

Ferrari customer teams Alfa Romeo and Haas are getting far too familiar with our losers category in recent times.

For the fifth (Alfa) and fourth (Haas) consecutive race weekend neither team scored points nor got anywhere close.

Haas never stood much chance after a slow pitstop for Schumacher dropped him well adrift of the points fight and an opening lap excursion made Magnussen’s already long odds even longer.

Alfa suffered yet more reliability woes with Valtteri Bottas stopping on track while Zhou Guanyu finished down in 16th place.

ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ: ΠΏΣ ΛΕΙΤΟΥΡΓΕΊ ΤΟ F1 DRS;