Max Verstappen has won the Dutch Grand Prix to move a step closer to retaining his world title.
Despite starting on pole, the one-stop strategy of the Mercedes put a second successive victory for the Championship leader at his home track in considerable jeopardy.
However, two safety cars and Mercedes keeping Lewis Hamilton on the wrong set of tyres ensured that the Red Bull driver could enjoy a stress-free end to the race.
In terms of position on the track, the opening half of the race passed by without incident, but it became apparent that Mercedes were using different tactics to their rivals.
Everything appeared set up for Verstappen to have to chase down Hamilton on different tyres during the closing 20 laps, Mercedes having seemingly got their approach spot on in their attempt to disrupt the status quo.
That was until the retirement of Yuki Tsunoda led to a virtual safety car, freeing up Verstappen to make a pit stop and retain track position.
The party has officially started! 🥳#DutchGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/oo4gAiNcDx
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 4, 2022
A second safety car was deployed soon afterwards and at a time when Verstappen and George Russell switched to the soft tyres, Hamilton remained on the mediums.
Not only did Russell's pit stop free up Verstappen to lurk behind Hamilton on the restart, it was on a tyre which was not suited to the scenario, and Verstappen had overtaken Hamilton by the first corner.
Russell also moved past his teammate with relative ease, leading to a furious Hamilton to lambast his team before Ferrari's Charles Leclerc denied him what would have been a deserved place on the podium.
Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso claimed fifth and sixth respectively, while Carlos Sainz Jr had to make do with eighth position courtesy of two pit-stop errors made by Ferrari.
Verstappen now holds a 108-point lead at the top of the Drivers' Standings, with Leclerc retaining second spot courtesy of possessing more race wins than Perez.
Hamilton had been in a position to make considerable ground, but the British driver is 17 points adrift of fifth and 43 points behind second.
Darren Plant
