Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Zandvoort isn’t a high overtake circuit, but the opening-lap incident involving Max Verstappen has well and truly thrown the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons as tyre strategy is playing a key role far earlier than predicted.
While Charles Leclerc in fifth is putting real pressure on George Russell now on lap 15, Oscar Piastri is another half a second down the road in cleaner air – about 4.5 second behind Lando Norris in second.
- Kimi Antonelli
- Lando Norris +1.5 sec
- Oscar Piastri
- George Russell
- Charles Leclerc
- Lewis Hamilton
- Liam Lawson
- Pierre Gasly
- Nico Hulkenberg
- Yuki Tsunoda
While Kimi Antonelli heads Lando Norris by about 0.7 seconds on lap eight, Oscar Piastri is about three seconds further back on a completely different strategy (on his hard tyres).
Is his role, at least for now, to hold up the chasing pack to give Norris some breathing room ahead?
What makes that less likely is that Piastri is able to push much harder at this stage of the race, given he’s on the hard rubber and doesn’t have to think about conserving them (like Norris does on the softs).
It’s not likely Piastri will be able to last the rest of the race on these tyres, but he is notoriously kind on his rubber…
Kimi Antonelli caught Lando Norris napping off the restart (OK, maybe that’s a bit harsh – it was potentially just an amazing start from Antonelli).
Oscar Piastri is up into third after a stunning overtake on George Russell in the most unlikely of places. It’s even more stunning when you think Oscar is on the hard tyres.
LAP ORDER AFTER LAP 5
Antonelli
Norris
Piastri
Russell
Leclerc
While Lando Norris is on soft tyres out in front, Oscar Piastri has pivoted dramatically to hard tyres.
The two Mercedes cars of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell are on medium-compound tyres, while Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are also on softs.
Oliver Bearman had an “off” after losing power on the formation lap (triggering another formation lap for the marshals to remove his stricken Haas), so, like Max Verstappen, his race is done before it barely began.
Teams are able to change their cars’ tyres in pit lane before they head back out to the track.
We’re only a couple of laps into the race, but that could mean the race strategy among the leaders changes massively.
The race will resume at 11.33pm (AEST).
Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) and Franco Colapinto (Alpine) can both expect penalties after overtaking under yellow-flag conditions before the race was temporarily red-flagged following Max Verstappen’s crash. You can expect for them to drop back once the race resumes.
The drivers, and their cars, are back in pit lane as track marshals frantically try to clean up the debris on the final corner of the track.
World champion Lando Norris, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell will be the top three when the race resumes.
In his final home race, Max Verstappen is OUT after a horror opening-lap crash.
A red flag has been called after a massive shunt on the pit straight.
The four-time world champion is out of his car and OK, but lost control of his car in the wettest part of the track and slid straight into a concrete wall. Wow.
“Yeah, that’s it. Ah shit – sorry,” is all Verstappen could say over his team radio.
Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto is also out of the race after being caught up in the mayhem.
