How Mercedes overcame Ferrari to become Verstappen’s 2022 Dutch GP win challengers

Just 0.021 seconds had split Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix on Saturday. But come the race, the Monegasque's Ferrari was always playing catchup, while a strategic gamble from Mercedes meant Lewis Hamilton came closest to denying Verstappen's marauding Red Bull a fourth win on the trot

It was very tense and required driving perfection, but Max Verstappen's triumph in the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix was strategically straightforward. His repeat victory in the 2022 race at Zandvoort was very much not.

The home hero left with an extended points lead over Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, but it was actually the resurgent Mercedes squad that put Red Bull most at risk of a shock defeat. That all followed Verstappen's team needing to put in serious overnight set-up work back at its factory to recover from his lost FP1 running on Friday.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.