Dutch GP Takeaways: Could Verstappen break F1's single-season wins record?

Max Verstappen wouldn't be denied another celebration in front of his home fans Sunday.

Verstappen took the checkered flag for the second year in a row at the Dutch Grand Prix with a boisterous Orange Army packing the grandstands.

On a fresher set of tires following a restart, Verstappen surged past Lewis Hamilton during the late stages of the race and never had to look in his rearview mirrors.

George Russell finished second and Charles Leclerc came in third while the fuming Hamilton had to settle off of the podium in fourth place.

With no shortage of drama, here's what you need to know from the Dutch GP.

Verstappen's 10th victory of the 2022 campaign matched his mark from last year's championship-winning season and was oddly enough eerily similar to the finale in Abu Dhabi.

Valtteri Bottas experienced engine problems in his Alfa Romeo and was forced to stop on the track to bring out the Safety Car. Hamilton remained out on medium tires and inherited the lead while Verstappen dashed into the pits for the softer set and still came out right behind his rival.

Just like in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton was a sitting duck on the restart and Verstappen breezed by.

Not only was it Verstappen's 10th win but also his fourth in a row as he's now built a 109-point gap on Leclerc in the championship. Only in 2016 has a driver scored double-digit wins and not won the world championship when Nico Rosberg edged Mercedes teammate Hamilton for the title by five points.

There are still seven races remaining on the calendar and at the pace Verstappen is flying, it's not out of the question for the Dutch driver to tie and even surpass the F1 record for most wins in a single season of 13 currently held by Michael Schumacher (2004) and Sebastian Vettel (2013). Hmm, there was a nine-year gap between those two and it's now been nine years since Vettel tied Schumacher's mark. Coincidence?

Hamilton was absolutely livid on the radio after Verstappen, Russell and Leclerc all passed him. The seven-time world champion blasted his team saying, "I can't believe you guys ----ing ----ed me."

Things even looked a little dicey on the track with Russell getting dangerously close to Hamilton when he made his move.

It looked like Mercedes had outsmarted Red Bull with Hamilton making his first pit stop rather late and for hard tires aiming for just the one-stop strategy. Verstappen's initial plan was to make two stops and facing the reality of remaining behind Hamilton whenever his second trip to the pits came.

Caution periods caused by both AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda and Bottas threw wrenches into those plans, however, forcing Mercedes to pivot on the fly. Before declaring "conspiracy theory" for what happened with AlphaTauri (Red Bull's other team) and Tsunoda, don't forget Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence. AlphaTauri have been out of sorts all season.

Also, keep in mind Russell only stopped to slap on the softs after he called his own audible complaining about his tires and dove into the pit lane.

While Russell caps the "Summer of George" with his best result this season, a cooled-down Hamilton said after the race: "To all the mechanics, fantastic job today, those are the best pit stops we’ve had all year so thank you for the continued efforts. Let’s keep pushing, we still got points today."

If you're a Ferrari fan, this has become a reoccurring segment, unfortunately.

A comedy of errors proved costly for Carlos Sainz starting with his first pit stop where not all of his tires weren't ready. Red Bull's Sergio Perez, who also ran over a Ferrari wheel gun, earned a cheap pass through the pits as Sainz remained idle.

A befuddled Sainz could only respond with, "Oh my God."

The wheel gun incident will probably get them a talking to from officials, but it seems trivial to what took place later. Sainz may have gotten away with one when he passed Alpine's Esteban Ocon right near where Bottas was parked on the track, but he couldn't avoid an infraction when he was released from the pits and almost collided with Ocon's teammate Fernando Alonso.

Sainz was dinged five seconds after crossing the finish line resulting in a P8 result. It could have been worse as at the time Sainz was informed of the infraction, the five-second penalty would have put him outside of the top 10 — i.e. outside of the points altogether.

The only silver lining for Ferrari on Sunday was that Leclerc's P2 result pushed him back into a tie for second place in the championship with Perez at 201 points apiece and seeded ahead based on having more wins.

It would take a miracle (and maybe even then some) for Leclerc to catch Verstappen. Even the gap in the constructors' championship at 135 points seems unreachable.

Right now, Ferrari would be better off focusing on finding their form. Just one error-free GP shouldn't be too much to ask and what better place than next weekend in front of their home fans at the Italian Grand Prix?

Of course, that could also make the mistakes all the more epic but let's just play it out and see where it goes.

Alonso started unlucky 13th on the grid, but it was no luck that the 41-year-old, two-time world champion showed he's still got it with a P6 finish. A solid start plus pitting for hard tires early paid off to put Alonso into the points (with a bonus bump thanks to Sainz's penalty).

Although Ocon remains one spot ahead in the drivers' championship in eighth place, Alonso has outperformed his Alpine teammate to the finish line in four consecutive races and just seven points separate the two.

Alpine's fifth consecutive double-points finish padded their hold on fourth place in the constructors' championship with McLaren 24 points back. Somebody at McLaren must love slot machines as Lando Norris finished P7 for the fourth time in five races. Still, it's better than not finishing in the points at all as teammate (for now) Daniel Ricciardo was once again a non-factor in 17th.

Maybe it's the Ferrari effect but Haas and Alfa Romeo, who both receive engines from the Scuderia squad, have come down to Earth after promising results earlier in the year.

Neither Bottas nor Alfa Romeo teammate Zhou Guanyu have scored points since the Canadian GP in June. Meanwhile, Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher have also ended up outside of the top 10 in the last four GPs after both finished back-to-back races in the points.

There has been some speculation the sophomore Schumacher is on the hot seat with his Ferrari Driver Academy contract set to expire. Those aforementioned consecutive points results are also the only two times he has finished within the top 10 during his F1 career.

Ocon has given Schumacher a ringing endorsement to replace the departing Alonso at Alpine, however, it seems like AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly is the front-runner to land that ride. Meanwhile, AlphaTauri have their eyes on Colton Herta, however, that appears to hinge on whether or not the IndyCar driver will be granted a Super License.

If you thought the silly season of musical chairs ended during the summer break, think again as we still have a few more seats in play.