The opening stages of the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort fell into disarray after rain began to fall during the grid procedure ahead of the race.
Max Verstappen crashed heavily on the exit of the final corner on the opening lap, with the Red Bull driver accepting full responsibility for the incident without hesitation.
Verstappen believed he could get back on the throttle through that section, but the track surface was clearly still too wet for slick tyres to generate grip.
Gabriel Bortoleto came remarkably close to a similar fate, somehow keeping his Audi out of the wall, while teammate Nico Hulkenberg narrowly avoided collecting him in a dramatic near-miss.
Hulkenberg immediately reported over team radio that he genuinely feared he was going to T-bone Bortoleto as smoke billowed ahead of him.
Bortoleto later explained that he made a reactive move to the left when he saw the smoke, which caused him to lose control in the same section that claimed Verstappen.
Pierre Gasly was among the drivers who questioned whether the safety car formation lap was the right approach, suggesting a normal out-lap would have allowed drivers to push harder and generate more tyre temperature.
“If we would go the way we did with one lap behind the safety car and a standing start, then I would have preferred to just do a normal out-lap, so we would have pushed a bit faster,” Gasly said.
The Alpine driver argued the FIA should have committed to one of two conventional options, either a rolling start with the safety car or a standing start with a standard formation lap.
“I think it was either no safety car and only one formation lap or with the safety car at least giving us one extra lap,” Gasly added, indicating he expected driver feedback to be reviewed before the next round.
Liam Lawson, standing in at Red Bull, shared Gasly’s frustration and said it was clear to drivers beforehand that the procedure was going to create problems at the circuit.
“I don’t know why we had the safety car. To do a standing start and also do a lap behind the safety car makes no sense,” Lawson said, adding that drivers could all see the chaos coming before the race even began.
The FIA clarified its reasoning, stating that a medical car was sent out on a reconnaissance lap, which an FIA spokesperson confirmed does not normally happen, to assess track conditions.
Feedback from the medical car indicated there was standing water at Turns 2 and 3, including the banked Hugenholtz corner, which led race control to opt for a safety car formation lap.
Completing the lap behind the safety car was also a deliberate tactical decision by race control to keep both standing and rolling start options available until the last possible moment.
Williams driver Carlos Sainz argued that a rolling start would not have prevented the incidents regardless, as the cars were already spread out single-file by the time they reached the wet final sector.
“I think, given it was towards the end of the lap, a non-standing start, a rolling start, would have ended up in the same result, because by that time we were all one by one,” Sainz said.
Lawson stressed that he had deliberately lifted significantly through the wet final corners, conscious that grip levels would be unpredictable given the power on offer with slick tyres.
“It was just impossible. The whole first half of the lap was dry and then the last few corners were completely soaked,” Lawson said, suggesting Verstappen may have been attempting a closer look at an overtake opportunity.
Verstappen himself declined to point to any external factors, accepting the crash as a straightforward personal mistake and nothing more.