Verstappen and Sainz expect intense battle for Dutch Grand Prix victory

F1

Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz are both confident Spa was a one-off and that the fight between their teams will be much tighter in Zandvoort

Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix

Back into battle: Leclerc and Verstappen are likely to be much closer in Zandvoort

Grand Prix Photo

Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz both believe the fight between Red Bull and Ferrari will be much tighter at the Dutch Grand Prix than it was in Spa last weekend.

Verstappen was unstoppable as he won the Belgian Grand Prix by 17.8sec, despite starting 14th on the grid due to an engine penalty.

Both he and Sainz put the performance difference down to the circuit favouring Red Bull’s car, and expect the gap to close once more at high-downforce Zandvoort.

Speaking ahead of the Dutch GP, Sainz was optimistic when asked if Ferrari could take the fight to Red Bull. “I think so,” he said. “I think we should just be going back a bit to where we were before the summer break.

“I think Spa was a great example of how an off-weekend can just change the perception so much in Formula 1 – I don’t think we are as bad as it seems.

CEL

The one-two gave Red Bull a 118 point lead over Ferrari in the championship, while Verstappen is now ahead in the drivers’ standings by 93 points

“I’m pretty sure that we can be back on form this weekend and be fighting again for pole and win.”

Those thoughts were echoed by Verstappen, who said: “Spa was amazing for us and I think better than expected.

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“I think it’s just our car with the layout, it suited the car really well. Here, of course, you run a lot of downforce on the car, completely different track layout and less straight line speed in general, so it’s going to be interesting.

“For sure if we nail our set-up, the car is going to be quick, but it’s a bit of a question mark of how quick it’s going to be compared to others.”

Sainz pointed out how quickly the pendulum had swung in the earlier part of the season. “It doesn’t seem too far ago when in Austria we outraced them by quite a big margin and in France, it was me passing the Red Bull of [Sergio] Perez coming from 20th – it was only three races ago,” he added.

The Ferrari driver was referring to the Red Bull Ring where Charles Leclerc passed Verstappen three times en route to winning the race, while Sainz was poised to make it a one-two until an engine blowout struck.

Then in France, Leclerc was comfortably in the lead until he spun into the wall, while Sainz put in an impressive recovery drive after starting from the back due to an engine penalty.

That weekend Ferrari was also on pole and, overall, the team has had the edge over Red Bull in qualifying this season – nine poles to four.

“We’ve done 14 races this year, all of them we’ve been within a tenth in quali and in the race and then suddenly there was one [where] it was eight tenths,” said Sainz.

“And also, maybe I’m just being too optimistic that we will not see that happen again, but it’s my feeling and maybe this weekend it will prove me completely wrong, but we will see.”