Max Verstappen chases home win to leave Red Bull in league of their own

For the swathe of orange-clad fans swarming across the dunes of Zandvoort, nothing less than a home victory at the Dutch Grand Prix for their man Max Verstappen will suffice. They know he is on a roll, marching to his second title, and they want to party, but for the Dutchman his performance will be of greatest import in just how emphatically he might wrap up the championship.

Meanwhile the wrangling between Alpine and McLaren finally came to a close. Formula One’s contract recognition board (CRB) ruled on the future of Oscar Piastri, confirming in McLaren’s favour that the Australian’s contract with the team was valid. After signing a multi-year deal, the 21-year-old will make his F1 debut for the team next season.

Piastri had been a reserve driver for Alpine and come up as part of their development programme, but when Fernando Alonso left they said Piastri would be driving for them next season, which he vehemently denied. The CRB has now concluded that the only valid contract was with McLaren signed on 4 July this year, one day after the British GP. At McLaren he will replace Daniel Ricciardo, whose exit was announced just over a week ago, although they had signed Piastri seven weeks previously. Ricciardo remains without a drive for 2023.

Behind the wheel where the real battle rages, Verstappen has enjoyed an inexorable sequence of wins this season but there is no guarantee he will deliver on this glorious circuit, nestling on the edge of the North Sea, not least after he suffered a gearbox problem in first practice after just seven laps. Intriguingly, Mercedes have once more found their form as the mercurial performance of their car continues to bewilder the team and their drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell,