Verstappen: "It's incredible to win here today on another home track"

Max Verstappen triumphed at the Dutch Grand Prix on home soil to bank the Dutchman's seventh win of the season.

The Red Bull Racing Honda driver began the race in pole position and held the lead for the majority of the 72-lap race in Zandvoort, crossing the finish line in 1:30:05.395 – 20.932s ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who placed second with Verstappen now leading the Briton in the drivers' standings.

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver Pierre Gasly finished fourth, having started in P4 after Saturday’s qualifying, and Sergio Pérez - driving for Red Bull Racing Honda - crossed the line in eighth place.

The Mexican driver started the race in the pit lane after the team made the decision to change the power unit in his RB16B overnight, but was rewarded for his efforts by winning Driver of the Day.

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver, Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda, ended the race in 19th place after retiring due to mechanical issues.


Red Bull Racing Honda

MAX VERSTAPPEN - 1st
"It’s incredible to win here today on another home track and it feels great to take the lead in the Drivers’ Championship again. Of course, the expectations were very high coming into the weekend and it’s never easy to fulfil that, but the whole crowd has been incredible and I am so happy to win here. It was quite a tough race. Lewis was really putting the pressure on and both Mercedes’ had really good pace, but we managed to have that three-second buffer when we needed it and I think that was very important. We can be really pleased with the whole Team performance – we made the right calls and we managed the race really well. 72 laps around this track is cool, especially in front of all these fans – they were incredible throughout the whole race. I’ve never experienced anything like this before in my life. I will, of course, celebrate at home this evening, but Monza is just around the corner and the championship fight is tight, so I want to make sure we perform at our best."

SERGIO PÉREZ - 8th
"I gave it my all. Every overtake was on the limit and I had to take a lot of risks. Today was all about damage limitation as I started from the pits after taking the penalty for the engine change. It was a bit of a shame at the end when Lando and I touched; I had a lot of damage on the right-hand side of the car. I think it was a racing incident as I wasn’t given enough space and I don’t think he could see me. Since that point I lost a lot of grip; otherwise, I definitely think P6 was on the cards today. I really wish I could have given more to the Dutch fans, they have been incredible all weekend. From now on it’s just about looking ahead and trying to come back strong in Monza."

CHRISTIAN HORNER - Team Principal
"It was an impeccable race for the Team today. There’s a fantastic atmosphere here and I’ve never seen a reaction like that in my whole career – the fans in Holland are incredible. It was important for Max to get a clean start, his ability to judge and read the grip level is very strong. We knew with the strategic options that Mercedes had that they were going to split the strategy and they did exactly that. It was also crucial for Max to make that pass on Valtteri quickly and then after that, we were able to cover Lewis. The Team did everything they could today to make sure Max had a smooth race and he did everything that he needed. Sergio won Driver of the Day and he has driven a great race. Not only did he take the penalty, he had a huge flat spot and we had to pit him for safety reasons, so he was in an even more difficult position then. He made great progress through the field, scoring important points for us and improving his confidence after a really tough Saturday. Looking ahead, Monza and Sochi are tracks that Mercedes have a stronghold. We’d expect them to have the upper hand; therefore the next two races are about trying to limit the damage and making sure we extract as much as we can out of the cars. It’s going to be really close and this championship looks like it’s going to go all the way to Abu Dhabi."

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda

PIERRE GASLY - 4th
"P4 is an amazing result today, I don’t think we could really hope for much better and it’s 12 important points for us. I really enjoyed all 72 laps here in Zandvoort, it’s a fantastic track. I had fun today, I’m really pleased with everything, the car is really fast and I managed to get it set up just the way I wanted. The team did a fantastic job throughout the weekend and today we were flying. I’m very excited to get back to Monza after last year and obviously the expectations are very high. We’ve clearly maximised our package this weekend, so it’ll be interesting to see how it performs next weekend in Italy."

YUKI TSUNODA - DNF
"Today’s result is disappointing of course, we saw an issue on the PU data and unfortunately had to retire the car. Up until that point the race was going quite well and the pace of the car was there, but it was hard to overtake. I’ve got to look forward to Monza now. I have some experience on that circuit, which is good. I’m going to take the same approach as this week, slowly building up the pace and hopefully we can put it all together next week."

FRANZ TOST - Team Principal
"Firstly, big congratulations to the organisers of this event. It was fantastic to see the fans in the grandstands and their celebrations across the entire weekend, starting from Friday. Likewise, congrats to Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing and Honda, they’ve dominated this Grand Prix. From our side, we’re also quite satisfied because Pierre did a fantastic job this weekend. The team managed to give him a strong car, even yesterday for Qualifying where he secured P4, he then managed to keep this position all the way to the chequered flag in today’s race. It was a very good job by Pierre, so a huge well done to both him and the whole team for this great result. As for Yuki, his car suffered a technical failure on the drivetrain during the race and we had to retire the car. We need to go away and investigate the cause of this issue. We are now looking forward to Monza, after this fantastic event here in Zandvoort."