Saturday, September 4th 2021
Dutchman brings home pole
Verstappen makes for orange madhouse
Formula 1 stops in Zandvoort – home game for World Cup runner-up Max Verstappen. The Dutchman uses the home advantage and secures pole position in a tough qualifying. Saturday is disappointing for Sebastian Vettel.
The orange mass raged – and Max Verstappen delivered. Driven by tens of thousands of Dutch fans, the Formula 1 Crown Prince stormed to pole position for his home race in Zandvoort. “What an incredible feeling,” said Verstappen after his nerve-racking performance in qualifying. The mood boiled over in the stands, and in the Red Bull garage the tension was released in a wild dance by the mechanics.
“I flew,” said Verstappen after taking first place on the grid for the 13th round of the World Championship on Sunday (3 p.m. / Sky and in the live ticker on ntv.de), his sixth pole position in the past seven Grand Prix. Second, just 0.038 seconds behind, was his big title rival Lewis Hamilton in front of the Finn Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes. “That was so tight,” said Hamilton under some boos from the Verstappen appendix. The defending champion only has a three point lead over the 23-year-old Dutchman, who wants to put himself back at the top of the overall standings with a home win in the dunes.
For Sebastian Vettel as a disappointing 17th and Mick Schumacher as the penultimate, it was already an early end of work. When attempting a last fast lap in the first round, Vettel in the Aston Martin was thwarted by a duel between Haas stable rivals Schumacher and Nikita Masepin. “I saw him too late, which of course is not what I want to do. If I stand in the way, then that is not optimal. Seb is the last one I want to stand in the way,” said Schumacher after a brief moment Dialogue with Vettel.
Mazepin has trouble with Schumacher again
The Russian Masepin bluntly accused Schumacher of not adhering to internal agreements. “I don’t quite know what he’s talking about. There was no reason to make a drama out of it,” countered Michael Schumacher’s son coolly at Sky. Vettel stayed behind sobered. “There wasn’t much more to it,” the Hessian confessed. The weekend had already started bitterly for the 34-year-old when he suffered an engine failure during training. For the race, Vettel doesn’t think much: “You can’t really overtake here.”
The trial laps had already shown that the route in the North Sea dunes is a real test of driving skills. The units had to be interrupted several times due to incidents, so the pilots lost time to get used to. In the qualification, Williams driver George Russell rushed through the gravel trap into the barriers and red flags were waved again. As soon as it went on, team mate Nicholas Latifi also crashed into the tire wall with great force.
The last time Formula 1 was driven was 36 years ago in Zandvoort. Since then, the course, which is only 4.259 kilometers long, has been rebuilt and made safer. The steep curves, which are reminiscent of the legendary Indianapolis oval, are spectacular. The coastal sand, which repeatedly blows onto the asphalt, sometimes makes it slippery. Grand Prix record starter Kimi Raikkonen caused a stir in the morning. The Finn is the seventh corona case among the pilots and has to leave his Alfa Romeo cockpit in Zandvoort to substitute Robert Kubica. The Raikkonen, who was vaccinated against the virus, is doing well, his employer said. The 41-year-old went into quarantine for the time being, as did Williams team boss Jost Capito, who had met with Raikkonen on the evening before the diagnosis. Kubica (36) took 18th place in the qualification.
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