After just a few minutes, Max Verstappen had to park the Red Bull at his Formula 1 home game in Zandvoort. The botched start of the Dutch world champion spoiled the mood in the ranks at first. Ferrari sets the pace.
With his helmet on, Max Verstappen waved to his Oranje fans in Zandvoort and trotted to the paddock on foot. The world champion experienced a stuttering start in his Formula 1 home game. Verstappen had to park his Red Bull on the track after just a few minutes in the opening practice session. The 24-year-old complained about problems with the gearbox after just seven laps. "Ah, crap," radioed Verstappen.
A crane had to tow his car. The first practice session for the Dutch Grand Prix has been temporarily suspended. For Verstappen, on the other hand, the one-hour session was completely over. The championship leader lost so important time and was only penultimate.
With a new gearbox, things went a little smoother in the second unit. However, he was only eighth, almost 0.7 seconds behind. Charles Leclerc (1:12.345 minutes) grabbed the best time of the day ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz, who was just 0.004 seconds slower.
Record world champion Lewis Hamilton was missing the touch of 0.072 seconds on Leclerc in third place. Haas driver Mick Schumacher, who is fighting for a 2023 cockpit, was 13th. Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin landed right behind.
"The radio isn't working again," Hamilton complained over the team radio during practice. Otherwise, the Mercedes man reeled off his workload. Hamilton wants to forget the crash a week ago in Spa.
"We don't have the pace over a single lap, but race pace is definitely key at some points," said Hamilton. It's about not "losing the racing potential" and trying to "improve the pace over the individual laps". The Scuderia initially set the pace.
Verstappen won at Zandvoort last year. At that time, the course in the coastal town had returned to the Formula 1 calendar after 36 years. The Dutchman is currently 93 points ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez in the 15th race of the season on Sunday (3 p.m. / RTL and in the live ticker on ntv.de).
