Max Verstappen turned the sky orange and Lewis Hamilton the sky blue with the most censure-laden slide of his Formula 1 career.
While the flares lit up Zandvoort in cheers for the local hero’s victory at the Dutch Grand Prix, Hamilton was condemned to finish fourth after an extraordinary strategic blunder by his pit wall boffins.
They basically turned him into a sitting duck. They sent him to a duel without even a gun.
Max Verstappen took home victory at the Dutch Grand Prix to extend his world title lead
The Dutch Red Bull star finally triumphed at the Zandvoort circuit on Sunday afternoon
That’s what it amounted to, as Hamilton stuck with medium tires while Verstappen switched to the fastest and softest of the three compounds for a late shootout for victory.
The result was inevitable. Verstappen got past Hamilton in a three-and-out before the first corner after a restart on 61 of 72 laps after the safety car was withdrawn. Now you see me, now you don’t.
Hamilton let fly over the radio. “That was the biggest shit,” he exclaimed. With rising anger, “I can’t believe you screwed me over. I can’t tell you how I feel right now.
A cheering, supportive crowd of 105,000 watched Verstappen take the checkered flag
High drama unfolded when the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas ended up on the straight. After an (unnecessary) break, the race was called off. At this stage, Hamilton was second, behind Verstappen. What to do?
Everyone around Hamilton reached out to be rehearsed. This included George Russell in the other Mercedes. He asked for soft. Hamilton, now in the first place, did not make the same request. This failure, in contrast to his younger teammate, means that he cannot be absolutely absolved of blame.
But the real problem is that the mistake was so blindingly obvious because it had shades of Abu Dhabi last year, when Hamilton was overtaken on the final lap and lost an eighth title to Verstappen. How much louder can you make a wake-up call?
The 24-year-old overtook Hamilton to take the lead after several Virtual Safety Car incidents
Yes, he may not have managed to pass Verstappen on the softs, but at least he would have been fighting him on equal terms. He probably wouldn’t have finished fourth. He would have crossed the line as runner-up, most likely.
His cause was not helped by his poorly executed restart, which went early and allowed Verstappen to take advantage of the more effective climb in the Netherlands.
Cheering from the stands on the straight, with its loud techno and packed with supporters, told the story of Dutch supremacy before the on-track footage had caught up with the action. Then, on lap 64, Russell took down Hamilton. Lap 65 Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has sped past on his way to third place. The seven-time world champion lost 11 seconds on Verstappen at the close.
Verstappen stood on top of his Red Bull car and waved to his fans after taking the win
He was also 30 points behind Russell, and playing second fiddle to his apprentice goes down like cyanide. On the way back to the pits for the incoming investigation, race engineer Peter Bonnington said: “Sorry Lewis, it was fine, but we’ll sit down and review the decisions we made.”
Team boss Toto Wolff came in as the captain speaking from the flight deck after a nasty bout of turbulence, saying: “Lewis, sorry, it didn’t go well. We took a chance. Let’s talk- between us in the office. When Hamilton appeared in the paddock in his dungarees to share his post-race thoughts, he and Wolff had spoken. A party line had been adopted in the best way ‘there is no nothing to see here.” Hamilton, now speaking under his breath, said he would not apologize for his display of passion.
“That’s how I’m made and I don’t always get it. I’m sorry to the team for what I said because it was done in the heat of the moment. But I want to look at the glass half full and we have a lot of positives to take from this weekend . If the car feels like this in other races, we will fight to win.”
Indeed so. It was a good weekend for Mercedes, well, before it all went wrong for Lewis. He had a chance of victory with an adventurous strategy that saw him try for a stop.
A virtual safety car rolled out for Yuki Tsunoda’s retirement: he drives for the Red Bull AlphaTauri junior team; eyebrows were raised, dented his hopes. The break allowed Verstappen to stop without paying a heavy price.
This was the world champion’s fourth consecutive victory, a hard-fought battle that lifts him 109 points ahead of Leclerc. Seven races and 191 points remain available.
Hamilton’s burly Mercedes 4×4 escape car was reversed in the paddock, a unique service intended to put him straight through the crowd, with 100,000 people on board and all cheering for Verstappen.
The beaten man waved as he went, his face partly hidden by the windows almost as dark as his mood.
Did you miss any of the action? Follow Sportsmail’s MAX MATTHEWS play-by-play coverage of the Dutch Grand Prix.