Nico Rosberg believes that Max Verstappen did not lose control just because of the wet track at last Sunday’s (23) Dutch GP. For the 2016 Formula 1 world champion, a different trajectory from the other drivers and an aggressive throttle recovery were decisive for the accident that ended the Dutchman’s race still in the first lap.
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Verstappen lost control at the last corner of Zandvoort, hit the wall, and scattered debris across the track. The impact tore off the two left wheels of the Red Bull, which was severely damaged. The driver emerged unscathed, but the accident caused a red flag.
Rosberg highlighted the difficulty of negotiating the high-speed corner with dry tires on a track that alternated between dry and wet sections: “First of all, it’s wet there. It’s a mix of wet and dry. It’s a combination of everything. It’s incredibly difficult,” Rosberg told Sky F1 about Verstappen’s accident. “With slick tires, going through that high-speed corner is the hardest thing in the world.”
“Max is clearly tighter than everyone else, and when you look more closely, it seems the dry line is shifted about 50 centimeters relative to the inside. I think he just accelerated a bit too much, and that was it. And look, he is the biggest right now, the greatest driver there is, one of the greatest of all time. That just shows how difficult it is to drive in these conditions.”
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Verstappen himself later admitted he was “caught off guard” by the conditions. The result was especially painful: since the return of the Dutch GP to the calendar in 2021, he had achieved three wins and two second places at Zandvoort.
Without Verstappen in the race, Lando Norris won the race, ahead of the Mercedes duo, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.
