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F1

Max Verstappen victorious again at Dutch Grand Prix as Hamilton tears into Mercedes team

Red Bull's Max Verstappen is once again champion after fending off intense competition from Lewis Hamilton on Sunday.

Max Verstappen in Victorious at the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix

Verstappen picked up from where he left off in Belgium with another win in his home country.

A thrilling race on race saw Mercedes live up to the hype they had received this weekend.

Ferrari were unable to challenge Red Bull, but both Hamilton and George Russell were flying on hard tyres and putting race leader Verstappen under intense pressure for most part of the race.

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But everything was changed by a virtual safety car, followed by the real thing. Hamilton took the lead of the race as Verstappen pitted for soft tyres.

However, Russell also came in under the main safety car and so the seven-time world champion lost his buffer, and was duly overtaken by the 24-year-old Dutchman.

The Dutchman had a 10 second gap to Leclerc but the two Silver Arrows further back were the ones marching on. Perez was pulled in for new hard tyres with 30 laps to go, with Red Bull keen to gather data on how well they worked for the Mexican so they could decide what would be the best plan for his team-mate.

In the end he was helped by a bizarre set of circumstances.

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Alpha Tauri's Tsunoda stopped on the track and complained about his wheels, but was told by his mechanics to move again and come back to the pits.

While in there, mechanics were delving around in the cockpit for 30 seconds and, after he came back out on to the track, he was told to stop again and pulled over next to the track.

A safety car was deployed and Verstappen grabbed the cheap pit stop he needed. Mercedes, knowing Hamilton and Russell would have been behind the Dutchman as a result, pulled in their two drivers for fresher rubber and they came out 12.6s behind the leader.

The two Mercedes drivers did their best to close in on Verstappen but Red Bull pulled in their star driver for new soft tyres, while Hamilton and Russell stayed out – giving them track position for the restart.

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A full safety car came soon after although it allowed Verstappen – on his newer and softer rubber to breeze past Hamilton.

With many other drivers also on soft tyres by this point, the seven-time world champion tumbled out of the podium places, his Mercedes teammate with Russell overtaking him in second place as well as Ferrari's Leclerc who then completed the top three.

Following the win, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has hit out at his Mercedes colleagues with an astonishing expletive rant after losing the lead to Max Verstappen at the Dutch Grand Prix.

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The 37-year-old Mercedes star was left distraught after the team decided to pit George Russell during the safety car, leaving Hamilton exposed on the restart on Lap 61.

Hamilton looked like he had been in a prime position to win his first race of the season after Verstappen pitted for soft tyres while the safety car was deployed.

However, the Silver Arrows made a curious call to bring Russell into the pits, also for soft tyres for the final stint of the race, allowing Verstappen to leapfrog the young Briton into second place.

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

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2. George Russell (Mercedes)

3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

5. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)

6. Fernando Alonso (Alpine)

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7. Lando Norris (McLaren)

8. Carlos Sainz (Red Bull)

9. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

10. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

11. Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri)

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12. Alex Albon (Williams)

13. Mick Schumacher (Haas)

14. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)

15. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

16. Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)

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17. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)

18. Nicholas Latifi (Williams)

19. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)

.20. Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri)

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