A party-like atmosphere at Formula 1’s grand return to the Netherlands wasn’t enough to help Daniel Ricciardo from securing a points finish in the Dutch Grand Prix overnight.
 
Drivers faced a sea of fans in orange at the Circuit Zandvoort, there to support of local hero and eventual race-winner Max Verstappen, but for Ricciardo, the 72-lap race ended with an 11th place finish.

Having shown glimpses of a return to form on Saturday, qualifying in 10th place, Ricciardo was confident for a big outing on Sunday.

When it came to race day, the 33-year-old started well and made up a position early but was unable to get that desired pace out of his car.

A new McLaren race strategy then saw the Australian back up the field behind him to allow teammate Lando Norris to gain positions in order to score points.

“We tried to execute a team strategy to maximise points, which cost me some race time,” Ricciardo said.

“It was hard to get going after that and I think ultimately the pace wasn’t that good. We did struggle a bit, for different reasons, in the first and second stint.

“We were P10 at one point today, but it was hard to see how we could’ve been much higher than that. I’d have obviously loved to score points, but we’ll analyse it and learn from it.

“I did the start with my other hand and that was a big part of losing a position to (George) Russell off the line. But we recovered well and I got back past Russell and (Antonio) Giovinazzi.

“We actually gained a position on lap one when I thought we were going to lose a few, so that was great. We were then just stuck behind the Alpines. They were saving the tyres and I was just trying to stay with them.

“Once they opened it up, I didn’t have their pace.”


At the front of the field, Verstappen managed to secure his seventh win of the season to regain the championship lead from title rival and seven-time champion, Lewis Hamilton.

In front of thousands of Dutch fans, the Red Bull driver produced a brilliant performance all weekend to take out the win from pole, while Hamilton tried to spoil the party but could only finish second with the fastest lap ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

It’s straight to Italy for the Formula 1 World Championship for the third round in a third consecutive week with Monza Circuit to play host to the Italian Grand Prix this weekend.