Verstappen hails 'incredible' home win at Zandvoort

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Max Verstappen was feeling on top of the world after clinching an emotional home win in the first Dutch Grand Prix to be held at Zandvoort in 36 years.

The grandstands were packed by the Red Bull driver's Orange Army of supporters as he successfully started his race from pole and convincingly controlled proceedings all the way through to the chequered flag 90 minutes later.

"As you can hear already, it’s just incredible" Verstappen told the media in parc ferme after the finish. "The expectations were very high going into the weekend, and it’s never easy to fulfil that.

Read also: Verstappen retakes title lead after Zandvoort victory

"It’s just an amazing day with just the whole crowd. It’s incredible," he added, celebrating being back in the lead of the drivers title battle against Lewis Hamilton. "Of course, I'm so happy to win here to take the lead as well in the championship.

"Mercedes tried to make it very difficult for us, but we countered them all the time really well, and we can be really pleased with the whole team performance today.

"The start was very important and I think we did that well," he said, having kept the lead into the first corner and soon pulling away from his Mercedes rivals over the opening stint.

The first round of pit stops saw Valtteri Bottas stay out longer and take the lead for eight laps. Team boss Christian Horner said that it had been crucial for Verstappen to get back in front as soon as possible.

"The most important part of the race for us was for Max to make that pass on Valtteri, and he did that quickly," he told Sky Sports F1.

"We were worried about Valtteri backing him [Max] up and then Lewis getting the undercut on both of them. That's why it was crucial to get past really quickly.

"After that we were able to just cover Lewis," he added. "It's tough competition, they are fighting over tenths of a second every lap.

"I think it was a good race, a fair race," he concluded, after recent events had ended in rancour between Red Bull and Mercedes. "A race like that is never easy."

Verstappen comes out of the weekend with a three point advantage over Hamilton in the drivers championship, after the Briton clinched the bonus point for fastest lap right at the end after a late stop for fresh tyres while Verstappen made no attempt to make another pit stop.

With Bottas finishing in third place and Verstappen's team mate Sergio Perez only picking up fur points by finishing in eighth place following a pit lane start, Mercedes still retain the lead in the constructors standings by 12 points over Red Bull.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.