Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton during a late Safety Car restart to retake the lead and win his home grand prix at Zandvoort.
The championship leader led the majority of the race but pitted under a late Safety Car, handing the lead to Hamilton until his passed him at the restart. George Russell finished second, with Charles Leclerc taking third for Ferrari.
When the lights went out, Verstappen successfully retained the lead from Leclerc, while Carlos Sainz Jnr held onto third after a close encounter with Lewis Hamilton on the exit of the first turn. Behind, Russell fell behind Lando Norris into seventh while Lance Stroll jumped from tenth to eighth.
On the second lap, Alexander Albon and Kevin Magnussen battled out of the first corner for 15th place, with the Haas driver running off track at turn two and brushing the barrier. Despite dropping to the rear of the field, Magnussen was able to continue.
Leclerc kept in touch of the leader in the opening laps, pulling within DRS range of the Red Bull on lap six. However, Verstappen responded and pulled the gap back to over 1.5 seconds. Sainz in third dropped back from his team mate and was under pressure from Hamilton on medium tyres, but managed to keep the Mercedes from getting a serious run on him.
Sainz pitted with Sergio Perez following not far behind. However, Ferrari failed to have Sainz’s left-rear tyre rear, costing Sainz vital seconds, while Perez emerged from his pit box and ran over the wheel gun, although Ferrari were able to fit Sainz with a new tyre and send him back out having dropped multiple places.
Leclerc pitted for mediums at the end of lap 17, rejoining in fourth, while Verstappen pitted two laps later, rejoining with a five second advantage ahead of Leclerc in third. Hamilton was now leading on his medium tyres, ahead of team mate Russell, with the two Mercedes the only cars yet to have made their first stop.
Verstappen caught up to the back of Russell and only required one trip through the DRS zone on the pit straight to pass the Mercedes around the outside into turn one and move up into second place. The Red Bull driver inherited his lead back at the end of lap 29 when Hamilton pitted for hard tyres, dropping him back in front of Sainz in fifth, before Russell followed suit two laps later, bringing Leclerc back up to second place.
Hamilton pushed immediately on his hard tyres, catching up to third-placed Perez. As they began lap 36, Hamilton tried to make a move around the outside…
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