MADRID, 22 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Formula 1 World Championship returns this weekend after a short break for ‘holidays’ and with the uncertainty of seeing whether the leader, the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), has managed to recover his former strength and can end his drought by taking advantage of the fact that he is racing at home in a Dutch Grand Prix that he has always dominated.
The Zandvoort circuit hosts the fifteenth round of the championship calendar, which is now entering its final stretch of ten races and with the question of whether the title will be tightened after the sudden and unexpected drop suffered by the three-time world champion who, despite everything, still has a large points advantage over his pursuers, whose equality between them also ‘helps’ him at the moment.
Verstappen closed the first part of the World Championship with a fourth place on the Belgian circuit of Spa-Francorchamps, a stage where, for the fourth consecutive Grand Prix, he was unable to score a victory, a bad streak that he had not experienced since the 2020 season and which seems to finally question the dictatorship that Christian Horner’s team and the Hasselt driver had imposed for some time.
But despite this bad moment, plagued by the fact that he has only been on the podium once, at Silverstone, where he finished second, the leader maintains a lead of 78 points over second-placed Briton Lando Norris (McLaren), and 100 over third-placed Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), a lead he hopes to increase in a special Grand Prix, not only because he will be racing in front of his home fans but because it will be his 200th.
The World Championship opened before the break and could now add more excitement at Zandvoort, where rain is another threat and where since its entry into the calendar in 2021 only ‘Mad Max’ has been the winner. The threats now seem to be McLaren and Mercedes, especially the ‘Silver Arrows’ who have won three of the last Grand Prix, two with Lewis Hamilton, Great Britain and Belgium, the latter due to the disqualification of George Russell, who dominated in Austria.
The McLaren of Australian Oscar Piastri has been the other winner in this bad run of the Dutchman with his victory at Hungaroring, a fight without a clear dominator that favours a Verstappen who is still ‘comfortable’ without a clear direct rival.
“If you look at how the season is going at the moment, for sure,” the championship leader replied in the pre-season press conference when asked if he expects any difficulties. “There are a lot more teams involved who can win a race, so of course I’m not going to go into this weekend saying we’re going to win the race. I just want to have a clean weekend, understand the car a bit more, learn from it. Of course, we analysed a lot during the break and tried to do things maybe a bit differently or better and during the weekend we’ll find out how it goes.”
ALONSO DREAMS OF REPEATING HIS LAST VISIT
Far from that fight are the two Spanish drivers, Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), who will try to be with those ahead on a circuit that is not excessively suited to the Madrid driver and where the Asturian was second last year in a race that, as could be the case on Sunday, was marked by rain.
The two-time world champion is not managing to make his ‘AMR24’ competitive enough to fight with the McLarens, Mercedes and Ferraris, but he hopes that the work that has been done during the break and the modifications that his team is bringing to this Grand Prix will help him to comfortably finish in the points.
Alonso is ninth in the championship with 49 points, far behind Sainz, who faces his final ten races as a Ferrari driver with the hope of returning to the front and defending his current position within the world’s ‘Top 5’.
The Madrid-born driver has failed to get on the podium in the last three races, with Ferrari finding itself a step behind McLaren and Mercedes despite Leclerc’s third place at Spa, and he will try to defend himself and score as many points as possible before facing a stretch of the calendar with Grands Prix theoretically more favourable to his car.
–DUTHERLANDS GP TIMETABLE.
-Friday.
12.30-13.30: Free practice 1.
16.00-17.00: Free practice 2.
-Saturday.
11.30-12.30: Free practice 3.
15.00-16.00: Qualifying.
-Domingo.
15.00: Carrera.