George Russell finished 17th after suffering a puncture from a red flag restart. Photo: Getty Images/Gregory Lenormand
Mercedes is a team that prides itself on its professionalism and protocols, but it's fair to say they had a real roar in Holland yesterday.
A 'disastrous' decision to stay on the sidelines at the start of what would eventually turn into a jittery, torrential downpour of the Dutch Grand Prix, mistakenly believing the downpour coinciding with the start of the race would 'only last a couple of minutes', cost George Russell and Lewis Hamilton big glasses. Of course, the podium. Perhaps more.
After that, Hamilton was adamant that his Mercedes this time was «on pace» with Max Verstappen's Red Bull. And while he was always too far behind to race, finishing 13th on the grid, teammate Russell started third and could have had a much more profitable day if Mercedes had made the right decisions.
< p>This was, as Russell noted, «a huge embarrassment» for the team, given the speed of the car. Toto Wolff promised to investigate.
“We were disastrously out of the game for too long,” agreed the head of the Mercedes team. “We will carefully check. “The situation never depends on one person or one department. It's a communication between the driver, the pit wall and the strategy and then we all make a decision. It was absolutely not up to par on the part of all of us, including me.”
In the end, while Mercedes was left wondering what could have been, Hamilton recovered to finish sixth and Russell retired altogether due to late contact. consecutive wins in Formula 1.
The Dutch driver may have the fastest car, but at the moment he drives so brilliantly that he deserves all the praise. It's not easy to go race after race without error, but that's exactly what he does.
Compare and contrast with his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez, who qualified seventh here, recovered to finish second, but then retired after late flood, giving second place to Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso. Adding to the injury, Pérez was caught speeding in the pit lane and was given a five-second penalty, dropping him to fourth behind Alpine's Pierre Gasly.
Cheko hits the wall at the entrance to the pits right in front of the red flag…😬 pic.twitter.com/Gr9YHc8OQk
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 27, 2023
Verstappen just doesn't make those kinds of mistakes. Not that there weren't enough potential banana skins.
After a bizarre and very Dutch pre-race ceremony featuring André Rieu and an orchestra of musicians dressed as Disney princesses, Verstappen actually lost the lead right at the start after also falling victim to a brief rain at the start.
Skip at least one extra lap proved to be a disaster. Hamilton did it and got out last. Russell missed five laps and by this time fell behind his teammate, who started 10 laps behind him. “I was predicted for the podium. fuck. How did we screw everything up? he plaintively asked his team over the radio.
Verstappen, who also missed one extra lap, also dropped significantly to 13th. But he managed to regain the lead by lap 13 after the second lap of pit stops. And it looked like he was on his way to another victory, but with eight laps to go, a torrential downpour hit the Zandvoort track. managed to keep going. Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guangyu was not so lucky: he crashed into the barriers with such force that a red flag appeared.
After a delay of 43 minutes, the race was eventually restarted with a second restart and Verstappen completed his task. with a minimum of fuss to win his ninth victory in a row. Now he will compete for the absolute record in Monza next weekend.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner purred positively. “Winning nine games in a row is crazy,” he said. “The most impressive thing for me this weekend is the pressure that Max is under and the expectations of 100,000 Dutch fans. Under such pressure, many things would break. Max is in a period of his career where he's just untouchable and I don't think there's any driver on the grid that can do what he does in this car.»
As What for Mercedes, they finished the race with great pace, with Hamilton challenging Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in fifth place and Russell passing Norris in seventh place before contact led to a puncture and forced him to retire. But that only made their disastrous early game calls even more frustrating.
George Russell is out of the game after a puncture! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/KzkydDKQWQ
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 27, 2023
«The race ended before it even started,» agreed Russell. “The weather information we received was completely wrong.
“We need to look into this, understand why others decided to make a hole and what information they had and we didn’t, and make sure that we don't make the same mistake again.»
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