George P2, Lewis P4 in Dramatic Dutch GP
George brought the W13 home in P2 and Lewis P4 after an action-packed race in Zandvoort amidst the orange smoke of the sell-out Dutch crowd.
The team opted to start both drivers on the Medium tyre, in contrast to those ahead on the Softs, and the drivers managed their tyres well to extend the first stint and set up a one-stop strategy on the Hard.
A VSC on lap 47 sparked a round of pit stops with the team taking the opportunity to pull off a smart double stack and switch the drivers to fresh Mediums. A safety car a few laps later brought VER in from the lead and so with Lewis running P1 and George P2, the team had a difficult choice.
The team opted to keep Lewis out to retain track position and fight for the win, while boxing George for the Soft tyre to consolidate at least P3.
The Medium tyre proved to be too offset for Lewis and he was passed by those behind on the Soft tyre, finishing P4 while George moved up to P2 – his highest finishing position for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.
George Russell
It’s been an incredible reception here, a really special feeling for all of us drivers to come racing in Zandvoort and in Holland. As a team we showed incredible pace today, I know the team result wasn’t quite what we hoped for, but this gives us a lot of confidence and a lot of faith going forwards. It’s incredible to see three different teams on the podium and we as Mercedes are slowly getting closer to that top step, so let’s keep on pushing. Not an easy decision for the team to make with the final safety car - when you’re in front with track position, you’ve got a shot to go for the win which is what we did. But this is what we as Mercedes are here to do, we’re here to win. And the 2000 people back in the UK, at Brackley and Brixworth, are all working to get us that win, so today we took a decision to give us the best chance of that. Our qualifying performance yesterday probably cost us most this weekend because if we were on the second row, I think we’d have been fighting even more for the win. But from race one in Bahrain, being a second off, to this weekend and having the fastest race car is incredibly impressive and everyone in the team should be very proud.
Lewis Hamilton
Today we were really challenged with the VSCs and Safety Cars. I think the strategy and the car had been so good up until that point, the pit stops were fantastic, the best I think we’ve had all year and it was really geeing me up. Especially after such an up and down year, we’ve not had a win since Saudi Arabia last year. So, it was finally there, within our grasp but of course then the safety car really didn’t help. But the guys were really, really on it, we were all on it and I really was hopeful that we were going to get a 1-2 together as a team. But given how it played out after the final safety car and dropping back, I was just on the edge of breaking point with emotions and my apologies to the team because I don’t even remember what I said over radio, I just lost it for a second. But I think they know that there is just so much passion and I want to look at today as a glass half full - we came here struggling from the last race and we were fighting against the Red Bulls today, we were quicker than most at many points. Without the safety car I think we’d have been challenging them for the win at the end on the one-stop which I don’t think the others could do. So many great things to take from this weekend - the car was finally working. If this can be the same in the future races, we’re going to be continuing to breathe down their necks and we’re going to get that win.
Toto Wolff
Zandvoort was a good track for us and both drivers performed to the maximum today with a strong car. We had some tough decisions to take with the safety car towards the end. With Lewis ahead, you can do two things: you can either pit him, lose track position against Verstappen and leave George out - screwed. You can pit both, but you are settling for P2 and P3 and we agreed as a team this morning to fight for the win, so it was worth the risk. I feel for Lewis, it’s highly emotional, you are that close, bracing for the win and then you are being eaten up. It’s clear that every emotion comes out but as I always say, we are the dustbin for the driver in the car. Lewis and I were just speaking and there are definitely more positives to take from this weekend, second and fourth, it’s annoying but we had a good race car here and that’s most important. You have got to take risks where we are. I’m confident we’ll get the win this season and we are going to try the maximum, we are a bit closer today and it is good fun in any case.
Andrew Shovlin
Our plan all along was to try and make a one stop strategy work if Red Bull and Ferrari went for the two stop as expected, as that would have given us the best chance of fighting for the win today.Unfortunately, the VSC caused by the Alpha Tauri scuppered that as Max would no longer drop behind us, so we took the opportunity to fit the Medium to both cars.We were then looking good to get both on the podium when the final safety car gave us the conundrum of taking track position on the relatively fresh Mediums, or fitting a used Soft from qualifying.Clearly the Medium struggled so that dropped Lewis back to fourth but it was great to see George up there on the podium having driven a very strong race.We always go away and review where we could have improved so we will do that as always, but more importantly, this weekend has been an altogether more positive picture than the one from a few days ago in Spa.The car was strong throughout the weekend and that’s by far the most important point.We’re still trying to get our first win of the year but we are getting closer and closer to making that a reality, so will keep working hard to achieve that.