Max Verstappen held off a spirited push from Lewis Hamilton to secure a second consecutive Dutch Grand Prix victory and extend his championship lead to 109 points.
The reigning Formula One champion edged out Charles Leclerc in qualifying to put himself in pole position ahead of Sunday's eventful race, where George Russell finished second and Charles Leclerc took third. Hamilton eventually faded to fourth.
AlphiTauri's Yuki Tsunoda and Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas both stopped midway through the race, with Verstappen's pit stop after the second safety car allowing Hamilton to take the lead.
Yet Verstappen recovered and regained the lead by going past Hamilton down the main straight on lap 61 to claim a fourth consecutive victory and 10th of the season, his joint-best return in a single year after also hitting double figures last year.
The top five retained their positions during an eventful start where Hamilton and Carlos Sainz touched cars through turn one, while Haas' Kevin Magnussen slipped off the track and hit the barrier.
Verstappen continued to keep Leclerc at bay through the opening 10 laps, responding to the Ferrari driver's early signs of pace by pressing forward to move out of DRS range.
A problematic pit stop for Sainz in which no rear-left tyre appeared available saw the Ferrari drop from third to 11th on lap 15, with Hamilton displacing the Spaniard as Verstappen stretched his lead over Leclerc.
Sainz recovered into sixth as Verstappen pitted for the first time on lap 19, with Hamilton – still winless in 2022 – taking the lead as Mercedes ran a one-two with Russell in second.
Verstappen roared back before a pit stop for Hamilton, who then got the better of Sergio Perez as the Mexican aimed to protect his Red Bull team-mate's lead.
A virtual safety car deployed after issues for Tsunoda offered a glorious chance to pit on lap 48 for Verstappen, who led Hamilton by almost 16 seconds with 23 laps to go after the Mercedes driver pitted.
Verstappen squandered his advantage by pitting after another safety car deployment, but he recovered to surge back into the lead with 11 laps to go to race to victory.
Russell and Hamilton almost collided as the former looked to overtake into second, with the seven-time world champion slipping down to fourth after Leclerc eased past him.
Wembanyama seeking recipe for success as record-breaking display fails to halt Spurs slide
Victor Wembanyama vowed the San Antonio Spurs will continue looking for "a good recipe" after his historic performance failed to prevent his team matching their franchise-record losing run.
At 19 years and 38 days old, the first overall draft pick became the youngest player in NBA history to post a 20-20 game, managing 21 points and 20 assists at home to the Chicago Bulls on Friday.
However, that performance was not enough to prevent a 121-112 defeat as the Bulls rallied after the interval, with Patrick Williams, Demar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic and Coby White all managing 20 points or more for Chicago.
San Antonio has now tied their all-time record losing streak of 16 games, while their 3-18 record is the worst they have ever managed through 21 games of a season.
Wembanyama – whose 20-20 game came when he was four days younger than previous record holder Dwight Howard – says it is still a case of trial and error after he starred from the center position against the Bulls.
"Experimenting in different areas of the game is always something important and interesting to me," Wembanyama said.
"Every game is different, but we're going to see and try until we find a good recipe.
"When our opponents are down at half, of course they're going to try and have a reaction. We've got to expect that every time, because our first half was pretty solid, especially defensively.
"There are ups and downs during the game, but we've got to get our downs less and less."
San Antonio's losing steak still stands three games short of that being endured by the Detroit Pistons, who are 2-20 after going down by a 123-91 scoreline against the Orlando Magic, their 19th straight loss.
Franz Wagner scored 27 points and Paolo Banchero added 24 for Orlando, with the Pistons now enduring the longest single-season losing streak in their franchise history and their second-longest overall.
Detroit previously lost 21 in a row across the end of the 1979-80 season and the start of 1980-81.
Though Pistons coach Monty Williams acknowledged the 15-7 Magic are a tough nut to crack defensively, he wasn't happy with his team's offensive efforts.
"They're a good defensive team but we missed a lot of open shots," Williams said after the defeat.
"They take away the paint, force you to play outside. We generated only 30 threes and just didn't hit a good percentage. We just had a hard time putting the ball in the basket tonight."
Lewis Hamilton demands change at top of Formula One
Lewis Hamilton demanded change at the very top of Formula One after lambasting the FIA’s investigation into his boss Toto Wolff and wife Susie as “unacceptable and disappointing”.
Hamilton was speaking at the federation’s prize-giving gala in Baku an hour after Wolff revealed Mercedes are considering taking legal action against the FIA following its compliance inquiry into claims of an alleged conflict of interest with Susie, who is the managing director of the F1 Academy.
A day after the FIA announced its controversial investigation into the Wolffs, the sport’s nine other teams said they had not complained and, on Thursday night, the FIA said there was “no ongoing investigation” before closing the case.
On another day of twists, the FIA’s president Mohammed Ben Suleyam had been due to face the media, but he was pulled from his press conference after the federation said he was hospitalised with concussion following a fall several days ago.
The FIA said Ben Suleyam, 62, who is set to appear at the prize-giving ceremony on Friday night, will make a “full recovery”.
“It has been a challenging week, and a disappointing week to see that the governing body has sought to question the integrity of one of the most incredible female leaders we have ever had in our sport in Susie Wolff without questioning and without any evidence,” said Hamilton. “And then just saying ‘sorry’ at the end. That is unacceptable.
“We have a lot of great people in the sport doing amazing work and there is a constant fight to improve diversity and inclusion within the industry.
“But it seems there are certain individuals in the leadership of our sport that every time we try to make a step forward they try to pull us back and that has to change.
“This is a global sport and we have such an incredible opportunity and natural responsibility to be leaders of change. We need to make some changes to make sure we are all pushing in the right direction.”
Forty-eight hours after the FIA said its compliance department was “looking into” the allegations which arose in Business F1 magazine, the federation said on Thursday that it “can confirm that there is no ongoing investigation in terms of ethical or disciplinary inquiries involving any individual”.
But team principal Wolff, who has overseen six of Hamilton’s record-equalling seven world championships, said Mercedes are in an “legal exchange with the FIA”.
“We understand that there is significant media interest in the events of this week,” said the Austrian, 51, in a statement.
“We are currently in active legal exchange with the FIA. We await full transparency about what took place and why, and have expressly reserved all legal rights.
“Therefore we ask you for your understanding that we will not be commenting officially for now, but we will certainly address the matter in due course.”
Susie Wolff, who in her role as boss of the all-female F1 Academy reports to F1 CEO Stefano Domenical, had already vehemently denied the allegations – calling them “intimidatory and misogynistic”.
However, on Friday she took another swipe at the FIA shortly before her husband’s statement was released.
“When I saw the statement issued by the FIA yesterday evening, my first reaction was: ‘Is that it?’,” she said on social media.
“For two days, insinuations have been made about my integrity in public and through background briefings, but nobody from the FIA has spoken to me directly.
“I might have been collateral damage in an unsuccessful attack on somebody else, or the target of a failed attempt to discredit me personally, but I have worked too hard to have my reputation called into question by an unfounded press release.
“We have come a long way as a sport. I was extremely thankful for the unified support of the Formula 1 teams. I have worked with so many passionate women and men at F1 and the FIA, who have the very best interests of our sport at heart.
“However, this episode has so far taken place without transparency or accountability. I have received online abuse about my work and my family. I will not allow myself to be intimidated and intend to follow up until I have found out who has instigated this campaign and misled the media.
“What happened this week is simply not good enough. As a sport, we must demand, and we deserve, better.”
Toto Wolff in ‘legal exchange with FIA’ over alleged conflict of interest row
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he is an “active legal exchange with the FIA” after the governing body launched an investigation into claims of an alleged conflict of interest with his wife, Susie.
The FIA has since dropped the controversial probe, which arose after a report in Business F1 magazine claimed that other team principals were concerned Wolff was benefiting from information shared by his wife, who is the managing director of the F1 Academy.
A day after the FIA announced its compliance inquiry, the sport’s other nine teams said they had not complained about the relationship between the Wolffs and, on Thursday night, the FIA said there is “no ongoing investigation”.
But on Friday the saga took another twist, when Wolff, who has overseen six of Lewis Hamilton’s record-equalling seven world championships, said Mercedes are considering legal action.
“We understand that there is significant media interest in the events of this week,” said the Austrian, 51.
“We are currently in active legal exchange with the FIA. We await full transparency about what took place and why, and have expressly reserved all legal rights.
“Therefore we ask you for your understanding that we will not be commenting officially for now, but we will certainly address the matter in due course.”
Forty-eight hours after the FIA said its compliance department was “looking into” the allegations, the federation said on Thursday that it “can confirm that there is no ongoing investigation in terms of ethical or disciplinary inquiries involving any individual”.
But Susie – who had already vehemently denied the allegations – calling them “intimidatory and misogynistic” – took another swipe at the FIA shortly before her husband’s statement.
Susie, who, in her role as boss of the all-female series, reports to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, said: “When I saw the statement issued by the FIA yesterday evening, my first reaction was: ‘Is that it?’
“For two days, insinuations have been made about my integrity in public and through background briefings, but nobody from the FIA has spoken to me directly.
“I might have been collateral damage in an unsuccessful attack on somebody else, or the target of a failed attempt to discredit me personally, but I have worked too hard to have my reputation called into question by an unfounded press release.
“We have come a long way as a sport. I was extremely thankful for the unified support of the Formula 1 teams. I have worked with so many passionate women and men at F1 and the FIA, who have the very best interests of our sport at heart.
“However, this episode has so far taken place without transparency or accountability. I have received online abuse about my work and my family. I will not allow myself to be intimidated and intend to follow up until I have found out who has instigated this campaign and misled the media.
“What happened this week is simply not good enough. As a sport, we must demand, and we deserve, better.”
Mercedes driver Hamilton is due to face the media later on Friday at the FIA’s prize-giving gala in Baku.
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