Verstappen’s home race ended in the wall on the opening lap

It was not to be the fairytale ending of the Dutch Grand Prix for Max Verstappen on Sunday after his race ended in the barriers on the opening lap.

The home-crowd favourite, who started in seventh place, hit a damp patch heading into the banked final turn of the Zandvoort circuit, hitting the outside barrier before falling back across the circuit, narrowly missing the rest of the oncoming field.

While the red flag delayed the race for nearly half-an-hour as they cleaned up Verstappen’s stricken RB22, he was unable to give them a send off, with the circuit’s contract with the sport coming to an end.

“It was a shame how my race ended today, but I am all okay,” he said afterwards. “It looked like it was dry in that spot, so I tried to accelerate and it just caught me out. I was a bit unlucky, lost the car and went into the wall unfortunately.

“We didn’t have the pace this weekend to fight for the win, which is something that we still need to work on.”

Verstappen dominated the first three years back at the circuit, which had been absent from the F1 calendar from 1985-2021. The four-time world champion cruised to victories in 21, 22 and 23 before McLaren dominance came to the fore in the last three years, with world champion Lando Norris claiming his second win in a row in Sunday’s race.

Always a well-attended event in support of the Red Bull Racing man, Verstappen said: “I have mixed emotions as it was positive seeing so many fans here for one final time but obviously a huge shame and quite disappointing to not finish the race.

“Luckily, we have such positive memories here and were able to achieve great things at this track, so I want to thank the fans for all the support. It has been something really special and I hope they have enjoyed it as well over all these years.”