George Russell wins the Dutch Grand Prix Sprint Race, ahead of Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris to complete the top three. In a largely uneventful race, the Mercedes got off the line well, managed his tyres and was never really under pressure to close the gap in the Championship to his teammate.
Russell Makes Clean Getaway
As the lights went out on the Sprint Race, George Russell got a clean start to lead into Turn 1. Russell and Norris were able to hold off the soft-starting Leclerc as the rest of the pack entered Turn 1 in mostly grid order. Championship leader Antonelli made a bold move around the outside of Piastri to get up to fourth. Could he start getting amongst the leaders?
Further back Sergio Perez was unable to make it to the grid after technical issues were spotted in the garage and Hulkenberg fell back quickly from 14th before pulling into the pits.
Early Stalemate Up Front
In the early stages of the Sprint, it was pretty much formation flying. The top 4 ran within 3 seconds of each other as a gap opened to Piastri in 5th. Both Verstappen and Hamilton had dropped into rhythm in 6th and 7th behind. Gasly had solidified his 8th place, followed by Bortoletto and Lindblad.
Leclerc Makes His Move
As the race transitioned into its 2nd half, tyre wear and management became the name of the game. Initially it was looking like Leclerc had overdone his soft tyres and was falling into the clutches of Antonelli. But suddenly both McLarens started to struggle with their rear tyres. Norris had to look behind him, rather than attack Russell for the lead, and before long, Leclerc was in position.
On Lap 18, Leclerc dived down the inside into Tarzan to take 2nd place from the reigning World Champion. He quickly started to gap the McLaren and chase after Russell.
Russell Takes Dutch Grand Prix Sprint
Once Leclerc got ahead of Norris, he couldn’t make the necessary inroads into Russell’s lead. But suddenly the weather became George’s biggest threat. Multiple teams got on the radio with about 5 laps to go, to inform their drivers rain was on the way. On the last lap no less. Like clockwork, the rain came as the leaders were heading into the final sector.
Luckily for George, it didn’t effect the track enough to cause issues and he crossed the line to win the Sprint. A relieved winner said the rain would have made a very tricky last lap if it had arrived a minute earlier.
So George takes Sprint victory from Leclerc, Norris, Antonelli, Piastri, Verstappen, Hamilton, Gasly, Bortoletto and Lindblad.
Lets hope qualifying and the full race are more action packed than that!
Qualifying: 3pm GMT Saturday
Race: 2pm GMT Sunday
Image Credit: Formula 1