“Dusted hamilton on the line!” F1 Twitter explodes as Max Verstappen pulls off an Abu Dhabi like move on Lewis Hamilton at the Dutch GP
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Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton
While the Belgium GP was a cake walk for Max Verstappen, the Dutch GP was expected to put him to the test keeping in mind the layout of the track. The Zandvoort circuit has parallels with Hungaroring, which makes it difficult for the drivers to overtake. Although, there are two DRS zones around the circuit, there is only one practical overtaking zone, that is down the back straight going into Turn 1.
Therefore, it was imperative for Max to ace qualifying and start from pole, an area which has been Red Bull’s Achilles heel throughout a brilliant season otherwise. The reigning world champions didn’t get the best of starts to the weekend as he faced a gearbox issue on Friday. But, after certain tweaks to the set up, Max Verstappen came out firing on all cylinders on Saturday and pipped Charles Leclerc to secure pole.
Now, it was about getting the strategy right during the race. While most teams were on two stoppers, Mercedes decided to switch it up and go for a one stopper as they believed that was their best chance to win the race. But Valtteri Bottas’ retirement brought out the SC and left Max Verstappen on fresher set of tyres behind Lewis Hamilton, reminding us of the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
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Max Verstappen gets the better off Lewis Hamilton at the Dutch GP
Just like Abu Dhabi, Max Verstappen wasted no time to get past Lewis Hamilton. The reigning world champion had to time his move to perfection or could have been penalised for overtaking Lewis under the safety car. Twitter went berserk as one fan said, “Dusted hamilton on the line!”
Another one wrote, “Max’s tiny lift before the finish line after the SC restart. Timed it to perfection.”
A fan even called out Lewis Hamilton saying, “Can’t believe Hamilton went that early on a straight with head wind. Almost rookie mistake.”
While there were others who vented out their anger saying, “First they use illegal floors for more than half the season, then they force alpha tauri to give them budget for upgrades and force safety cars?? how are redbull getting away with this.”
This was one of the highlights of the Dutch GP as Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton went wheel to wheel again. It’s definitely advantage Max at this point and it’s up to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes to find a solution and strike back.
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Shubham Bajpai
(776 Articles Published)