Zandvoort – Fantastic atmosphere, Fantastic Race

Zandvoort is located on the coast of Holland beside the North Sea. As with most of the races this season, it was wet. Very wet and bloody cold! The weather played a huge part in qualies and the race. The heavens opened, I realised why I left a country situated beside the North Sea and the cold wind blew. We had to ride 6 km on bike to meet our bus which then took us to the track. Zandvoort is not easy to get to.

The fans were fantastic and despite the weather, there was a party atmosphere from the word go! The DJ’s, who were older than me, kept the crowd going with lots of beer-drinking type oompa songs interspersed with “Super Max” song – which was loudly supported by the crowd. It was great fun and the supporters were great too. In practice 2, Ricciardo broke his hand avoiding crashing into Piastri and Liam Lawson was called in at the last minute to take over the reigns! When Liam Lawson was on track we were waving the NZ flag and lots of people spoke to us asking how we got over from NZ so quickly! The Dutch crowd were friendly, fun, enthusastic and fantastic.

The qualies saw lots of action. Cars were going off the track all over the place. Even the seemingly indomitable Max could not keep the car on track. Plenty of big names were struggling even in Q1! Hamilton just pulled it out of the bag on his final run, as did Charles Leclerc who only just made it through and then gave his engineers a lesson on how to inform him of traffic -oh Ferarri, nothing changes! Lawson did a great job in very tricky conditions.

Q2 saw the track wet but drying and Hamilton failing to get into Q1 and lots of drivers struggling. Alex Albon (Williams) was driving out of his skin and even Logan Sargeant made it into Q1! McLaren were looking ominous and Red Bull a little nervous.

Q1 witnessed the sun coming out and Sargeant crashing (although this time it was not his fault as the suspension failed). Another red flag! Both McLarens were going great guns and Max was third when Leclerc went off and hit the barrier (red flag). This allowed the track to dry a bit more and McLaren were flying again but Max pulled a great lap time and took pole. So it ended with Max (Red Bull), Norris (McLaren), Russell (Mercedes), and Albon (Williams). Who would have predicted that? Very exciting. Cannot wait for race day!

RACE DAY! And it is raining – lots of rain and wind. The rain caused a massive amount of carnage, crashes, and tactical decisions that dictated the results! Most cars started on soft tyres (for speed) when the heavens opened! Monsoon levels of water landed on the track. Lots of teams went straight into the pits to change onto intermediate tyres. Those who did not paid the price. Albon who was right up there and stayed on his non wet condition Medium tyres and lost about 10 places in one lap! Mercedes made a huge strategic error and stayed out for two laps before changing and basically prevented Russell from competing for a podium place! Are Mercedes taking lessons from Ferarri? What is going on! Toto get it sorted, please! However, not to be outdone by Mercedes, Ferrari had a huge blunder when Charles Leclerc came in for a tyre change and the Ferarri team did not have the tyres there! This debacle led to a 10 second wheel change – Red Bull do it in 2.4 seconds.

After the drama of the rain and strategy, there were lots of fast cars in the wrong position i.e. lower down the order. This led to lots of overtaking and Mercedes fighting back to get into the points. Alonso took second place and Gasly (Alpine) took third. Max won his ninth race in a row and is surely untouchable in 2023.

What a fantastic weekend of racing. A huge crowd that kept the party atmosphere the whole time, a Kiwi driver who did a splendid job and who finished a very respectable 13th and, more importantly, did not crash, Alonso back on the podium, Hamilton fighting from 13th to end up 6th, Russell only managing 17th and rueing what could have been. Even the national anthem, (Not Super Max song), was excellent with Andre Riue and his orchestra (come on UK learn from this). We met some great people and made yet more new friends. An awesome time!! This has been one of the best!