2022 Dutch F1 Grand Prix analysis by Peter Windsor
Max Verstappen won his home race - the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort - from the pole...but it was no easy thing. The two Mercedes shocked the Red Bull and Ferrari teams with their mid-race pace on hard Pirellis - and proved equally competitive when they switched to medium tyres on a lighter fuel load later in the race. Then came a Safety Car period and, for Max, a welcome switch to soft tyres for the final sprint.
Mercedes' George Russell also switched to softs but Lewis Hamilton, who had been in the strongest position to challenge for the lead, was left out on mediums. Mercedes saw this as an aggressive strategy because it gained them track position (ie, the lead for Lewis) - and assumed that, in P2, on soft tyres, Lewis was never going to be able to beat Max anyway. In this video, Peter Windsor argues that Hamilton, on softs, might well have been able to cause Max a few problems - particularly as Russell, on 15-lap-old soft tyres, was able to all-but-match Verstappen's fastest lap (set when Max's tyres were still fresh).
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