Dutch delight for champion-in-waiting as Red Bull see off their new main threat · RaceFans

From the moment teams first rolled out their revolutionary new cars in Barcelona for the first test of the 2022 Formula 1 season, Ferrari quickly established themselves as the team that all others would need to beat to have any hope of victory in the first season of F1’s new era.

Red Bull gladly stepped up to that challenge. Despite a rocky start, Red Bull and world champion Max Verstappen raced hard against their revived rivals until, by the summer break, Verstappen had pulled so far ahead that any realistic hopes of a Ferrari fightback in the final phase of the year had already faded.

As 100,000 Dutch fans held a symbolic coronation carnival for their soon-to-be two times Formula 1 champion at Zandvoort, even Ferrari were forced to admit that not only were Red Bull faster than them, but they were no longer the championship leaders’ closest rivals on track.

Red Bull and Ferrari’s Dutch Grand Prix weekends could not have contrasted more sharply in their fortunes. Despite ending Friday smelling blood in the water with Red Bull looking more vulnerable than they had been all season, Ferrari were left deflated on Saturday evening when Charles Leclerc missed out on pole position by the slimmest margin of the season. Verstappen, naturally, was the one who denied him.

With Leclerc and team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr behind the pole winner, the Ferrari drivers openly mused the prospect of playing the numbers game and splitting their strategies to try two different forms of attack on Verstappen at his home race. But when the tyre blankets were whipped off from cars before the formation lap, all three cars were sporting soft tyres.

Only Mercedes, it seemed, were willing to zig while their rivals zagged. George Russell lined up on the grid in sixth with a shiny new set of medium tyres, while, two spots ahead of him, Lewis Hamilton was sat drumming his steering wheel with his hand, waiting for the lights sequence to start, his car also sporting the yellow-walled rubber.

When the lights eventually went out, the front four launched away fairly evenly, with Verstappen having time on the run to turn one to cut across Leclerc as much to make a point as he did to practically defend his lead. As Verstappen swept around Tarzan for the first time he was, appropriately enough, greeted with a roar from his thousands of compatriots in attendance.

The top five completed the opening lap in orderly fashion, followed by Lando Norris…