Verstappen makes the Netherlands 12th country to produce a home F1 winner

2021 Dutch Grand Prix stats and facts

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Max Verstappen became the first Dutch driver to win his home race, and did so before a lively, raucous crowd at Zandvoort.

No wonder the crowd were in good cheer: They hadn’t seen anything close to that performance in the previous 30 world championship races at Zandvoort. Until Sunday the best result for a Dutch driver on home ground was sixth place, achieved by Carel Godin de Beaufort in a Porsche in 1962, and Gijs van Lennep in the terrible 1973 race which saw the death of Roger Williamson.

Verstappen succeeded the late Niki Lauda as the most recent winner of the Dutch Grand Prix, last held at Zandvoort in 1985. At that point it had held a in all bar six of the previous world championship seasons.

The Red Bull driver’s victory from pole position was a considerable improvement on the most recent performance by a home driver in this race. Huub Rothengatter qualified the sole Osella in last place for the 1985 race, 8.3 seconds slower than pole-winner Nelson Piquet. He was lapped 14 times before the chequered flag, and so was not classified. (He at least fared better than Kenny Acheson, who failed to qualify, lapping over a second slower in his RAM.)

Thanks to Verstappen, the Netherlands became the 12th country to produce a home race winner. Eight countries have seen their home event won on multiple occasions: Argentina, Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the USA.

Three other countries have had one-off home winners: Austria (Lauda, 1984), Canada (Gilles Villeneuve, 1978) and South Africa (Jody Scheckter, 1975). The USA also counts in this respect if the 1950-60 Indianapolis 500s, which counted towards the world championship, are excluded, as the only other occasion an American driver won at home was Mario Andretti* at Long Beach in 1978.

Where might the next new home winner come from? Among the current field Charles Leclerc (Monaco) and Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) have both won races but not their home event. Nikita Mazepin (Russia) and Yuki Tsunoda (Japan) also have home races they could win, though the Japanese Grand Prix has been cancelled for the last two seasons due to the pandemic.

The remodelled Zandvoort track yielded a pole position time of 1’08.885, making it the third-shortest lap time on the current calendar. Only the Red Bull Ring in Austria (track record 1’02.939) and Interlagos in Brazil (1’07.281) are shorter. The record for the shortest lap was set on Bahrain’s Outer Circuit last year which Valtteri Bottas lapped in 0’53.377, though no race on that configuration has been scheduled this year.

Lauda was F1’s most recent winner at Zandvoort…
Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Zandvoort, 2021
…until Verstappen’s triumph on Sunday

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Bottas came home third behind Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. The podium finishers were the only drivers on the lead lap, which last happened in Spain last year, with the same trio occupying the positions.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Zandvoort, 2021
McLaren have hit a lean spell
McLaren’s collapse in form went on. They’ve scored just seven points in the last three races combined, having taken at least 10 from every previous round. That’s allowed Ferrari to edge 11.5 points clear in their contest for third place. Lando Norris failed to reach Q3 for the first time this year, leaving the Mercedes pair and Verstappen the only drivers to do so every weekend.

An incident-strewn build-up to the race saw no fewer than six flags across four sessions. Yet the race itself ran without a red flag, despite one having appeared at each of the previous three races at Silverstone, the Hungaroring and Spa-Francorchamps.

The race proved disappointingly processional. So much so that six drivers finished in their grid positions, exactly the same as the previous event, where just a single lap was counted towards the final classification.

Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Dutch Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.

*Andretti also won in Italy, the country of his birth, after he had taken American nationality

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2021 Dutch Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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28 comments on “Verstappen makes the Netherlands 12th country to produce a home F1 winner”

  1. As Kimi Räikkönen was absent, Fernando Alonso was the oldest driver to take the start. Alonso became then 9th driver who has been both youngest and oldest starter in a Grand Prix. He was youngest for 2001 and 2003 seasons as well as five Grands Prix in 2005 when Christian Klien didn’t start.

    Other eight are:
    Andre Pilette
    Riccardo Patrese
    Martin Brundle
    Gerhard Berger
    Jean Alesi
    Michael Schumacher
    Rubens Barrichello
    Felipe Massa

    1. @bleu that is a great stat, and also pretty mad that Alonso was youngest in the entire field for part of 2005

    2. @bleu that is remarkable how many have been both youngest and oldest in their career. Only Schumacher and Alonso won a WDC, but all of them drove a car at some point in which their team mate won at least one race in.

    3. @bleu Awesome stat! We all know David Croft loves weird F1 stats, and he would do well to read the racefans comment section for these articles once in a while.

  2. So Australia has never had a home grand prix winner? Would be great if Ricciardo can change that

    1. If memory serves correctly, no Australian has ever been classified in the top 3 at home. Brabham and Jones raced before Australia was on the calendar, and Webber and Ricciardo haven’t quite managed it either (though Ricciardo initually finished second in 2014 before disqualificatin for a fuel flow infringement).

  3. Nooooo! Due to the questionable decision to cancel some of the remaining rounds, it is now no longer mathematically possible for Nikita Mazepin to be WDC this year – that will now have to wait ’til next year :(

    In fact with a theoretical maximum of just 208 points now up for grabs, this weekend saw both Haas drivers, both Alfa Romeo drivers, and both Williams drivers finally drop out of the running (sorry George – I’m sure better things are to come….)

    1. We still have a tbc race, thus Mazepin is still fully in the running (and can even do so without becoming the 11th nationality to win his home race).

      Haas however has to wait another year to conquer their coveted 1-2 in the WDC.

    2. There’s still hope for the brave Rus called Mazepin: we have two sprint races left that each offer a maximum of 3 points, and for each main race one can grap a win (25 points) and a fastest lap point. With 9 planned GPs for the remainder of the season, the amount of points possible for a driver is: (9*26)+(3*2)=240
      So yes, it’s still possible, but Mazepin would need to really work out his magic of being the fastest when nobody expects him to. And maybe his spins could come to help had he found a way to reach high speed rotation!

    3. But according to this article he could win the Russian GP so there’s still hope for him this season!

    4. Jelle van der Meer (@)
      7th September 2021, 9:23

      Mazapin’s Championships hopes this season survived the Dutch GP, there are currently officially still 9 GP scheduled and thus 234 points available for Mazapin with Max at 224,5.

      That said even if Mazapin finishes 3rd in Monza behind Lewis and Max he sadly will not be World Champion this season nor will he be if any more races get cancelled.

      1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        7th September 2021, 9:27

        It is actually a bit worse, Mazepin can win the race, have FLAP and still be mathematically out of contention if Max finishes 5th of higher or Hamilton finishes 3rd of higher.

      2. @jelle-van-der-meer

        Mazapin’s Championships hopes this season survived the Dutch GP, there are currently officially still 9 GP scheduled and thus 234 points available for Mazapin with Max at 224,5.

        You forgot the gimmick points of sprint (qualifying) races, there’s two in the schedule for this season and the next at Monza. Each one offers a maximum of 3 points for a driver so there’s still 240 points available for anyone to grab with a perfect record in the remainder of 2021 season.
        Then, if Mazepin really wants to keep his hopes of becoming WDC alive he needs to win the sprint with both VER and HAM failing to score and finish at least fifth (+ FLAP point) if Hamilton and Verstappen also score no points in the main race whatsoever – the most easier way of that happening is obviously Lewis and Max taking each other out (not very unlikely at any given race).
        Or else, should the main title fightes agree to keep it civil, as a result Mazepin’s mission is even more difficult: he would need to finish first in both the sprint and main race plus having a recognised FLAP while Verstappen and Hamilton still fail to score in the mini-race and finish no higher than third and second respectively in the GP after no race ending scuffle, given their superior machinery (unfair for our Rus puncher hero).

  4. Latifi reached Q2 for the 2nd consecutive event for the first time.

    Vettel found himself out in Q1 for the first time since the Bahrain season-opener, while Perez’s Q1 elimination was his first since last season’s Styrian GP.

    Mclaren has gone winless for 170 races.

    2nd DNF for Mazepin & 1st since Bahrain. Also, Tsunoda’s 2nd & 1st since Spanish GP.

    1. Jonathan Parkin
      6th September 2021, 21:15

      Isn’t it Mazepin’s third DNF. Didn’t he retire in Hungary when Raikkonen ran into him in the pitlane

  5. Kubica has equalled his best qualifying (although not his best start) from 2019.

    Hamilton has a career points total of 3999.5.

    Verstappen now has 17 career wins without having yet won a World Championship title – beats Moss’s 16 wins.

    Verstappen has won in his birth country and his official home country in consecutive weekends.

    Thanks to the official F1 site for some of these.

    1. Jonathan Parkin
      6th September 2021, 18:01

      Of course if he wins the WDC this year like Nigel Mansell he’ll be handing the record back

      1. Or if he wins the WDC at least once in his whole career the record goes back to Moss.

      2. Alain Prost and Nico Rosberg also took this record and then became champion and handed it back.
        I suspect the number of times Sir Stirling has lost this record and then won it back might be a record in itself.

        1. So what’s the highest this record has actually been? Rosberg got to 23 before he won the WDC, Mansell 29 or so (dunno when exactly he clinched it), Prost about 21. Guess it’s Mansell then.

          1. Yes, 29 for Mansell. He took the ’92 title very early, at the Hungarian GP, but only won once more that season. After that, his only other win was the ’94 Australian GP during his brief F1 comeback, to reach 31 career wins in total.

        2. Another thought has just occurred to me… if Verstappen wins the title and the record defaults back to Moss yet again, will this make Sir Stirling the first driver ever to become the holder of a particular record after he has died? I guess it might well do so.

    2. Verstappen’s 100th points finish in 132 entries (75.8% of races). Driver with the highest points finish all-time is Lewis Hamilton (279 entries & 241 points finishes – 86.38%).

      Remarkably if Verstappen is to ~equal Hamilton’s percentage/rate, he has to finish the next 103 races in the points – (235 entries & 203 points finishes – 86.38%).

  6. Sergio Perez also won races, but never at home, and still has the Mexican Grand Prix ahead this year, so if there’s another home win in 2021, it’ll most likely be his

  7. First non-Lewis home grand prix winner since 2014 German Grand Prix, won by Nico Rosberg.

    Bottas finished 3rd for the 6th time this season. Only one other driver has finished in the same position more number of times, Verstappen in 1st (7 times). Hamilton’s favorite finishing position has been 2nd (5 times). These 3 drivers also finished the sprint in their favorite positions: VER-HAM-BOT

    Where might the next new home winner come from? Nikita Mazepin (Russia) and Yuki Tsunoda (Japan) also have home races they could win

    Actually, Nikita still can’t win a home race until 2023 as he will be racing under the neutral flag until 2022 (Regardless of talent and machinery :) )

  8. “Where might the next new home winner come from?” — Stoffel is gonna get the Williams seat, wow Mercedes so hard that he gets to replace Hamilton when he retires, then lead the Belgian Grand Prix from the start only to be bumped out of the race in the penultimate lap, as is forever his fate. So definitely not Stoffel. Leclerc then, probably.

  9. Nikita Mazepin (Russia) and Yuki Tsunoda (Japan) also have home races they could win

    I don’t have a hat but I’ll eat it anyway

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