Red Bull driver Max Verstappen moved back to the top of the F1 drivers’ standings with victory at the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday and was three points ahead of Mercedes-Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton qualified less than 0.04 seconds behind Verstappen’s pole time on Saturday and managed to stay just a few seconds behind the Dutchman for much of the race and keep the pressure going.
It was Red Bull’s seventh win in the last nine races. Mercedes has only won one victory over the same period, at the British Grand Prix in July after Hamilton and Verstappen met on the first lap.
Hamilton said after the race that Red Bull seemed “one step ahead” at the moment, but rival team boss Horner felt that things were still “massively tight” with Mercedes.
“[We’re] Qualifying within a tenth ”, said Horner after the race on Sunday in Zandvoort.
“We seem to have a tenth, maybe two tenths lead in the race, I would say at this point.
“There will be tracks that suit Mercedes and there will be tracks that suit us, I think in the next phase of this championship.
“So we have to make sure that we take every opportunity. Today we did it under a lot of pressure, but it was great to get our eighth win of the year. “
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff agreed that the margins with Red Bull were good, pointing out that Verstappen, Hamilton and the second Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas were the only three to finish the jump lap at Zandvoort.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes AMG, and Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing, at the team principals’ press conference
Photo by: FIA Pool
“You can see between the teams, there is simply nothing in between,” said Wolff.
“The first three cars lapped all the others, and that shows the level you have to use to win these championships.”
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Wolff thought that the lead between Red Bull and Mercedes would fluctuate “route by route” as the year progressed.
“We just have to be in our A-game the whole time,” said Wolff.
“And with these little mistakes [at Zandvoort]since we can’t properly complete FP2 as a starting point, and then in conducting the race itself we just have to be … it takes the A game to win the A championship. “
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