LEWIS HAMILTON surrendered the lead in the F1 championship – then warned he risks losing his title to Max Verstappen.
The 23-year-old won his home race as the already colourful Dutch GP burst into an all-out orange party.
Verstappen, who started on pole, led a controlled race and crossed the finish line engulfed in orange clouds of smoke from fireworks that had been let off in the grandstands.
The win moves him back to the top of the rankings in place of Hamilton, who admitted he couldn’t match his rival’s rampant Red Bull.
He said: “Congrats to Max, they just did a better job all round, they definitely were faster. There wasn’t a lot I could do to answer the lap times he was doing.
“It was very hard to keep up, and I think Max was just managing whereas I was flat out just trying to stay as close as possible.
“We needed everything to be perfect to have the slightest chance to pass him on strategy.
“Pit stops needed to be on point, start and traffic also, but none of those three were ideal, but nonetheless as a team we got second and third and some important points.”
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Hamilton was left for dust as Verstappen blasted away from the startline and was already two car lengths clear of his title rival going into Turn One.
As a result, there was no repeat of the collision we saw in Hamilton’s home race– he simply could not get close enough.
In an otherwise procession, Hamilton said he felt his Mercedes team bungled their strategy in trying to create an opportunity for him to get the jump on Verstappen with their pit stops.
He added: “We stopped too early in that second part. I lost a good second from him and I needed time to catch up and close that gap up before we did the stop.
“Then I came out behind traffic, so I couldn’t actually implement it. I don’t know how they didn’t see that but it is what it is and we’ll work through it.”
Former Mercedes driver and Hamilton ex-teammate Nico Rosberg was particularly scathing of just how the team nobbled Hamilton’s chances, singling out the communication with his race engineer Pete Bonnington.
He said: “They’ve had a couple of moments, not their usual high level of strategy. Something is going on. There’ll be some serious discussions.
“What I also found bad was the comments from Bono to Lewis. So unclear, should he push now or not.
“What is he doing? As a driver, this frustrates me like hell. I’m like come on, give us clear guidance. That was below par from Bono.”
Meanwhile, Hamilton admits he has his work cut out if he is to win his record eighth world title, with nine races remaining.
Now without a victory on pure pace since the Spanish GP in May, Hamilton added: “I’m giving it everything but since the first race, Red Bull have had such a strong car.
“We had a couple of races where it looked like we just about were on par with them but there’s only been a couple of those.
“Then they took a big, big leap and it’s been difficult for us. We are ahead in the team championship, which is great.
“But of course we need to pick up some speed if we want to be able to win races in future.”
But Verstappen has rubbished Hamilton’s comments that his Red Bull is vastly superior, pointing out that the seven-time world champion was on pole at Silverstone.
Verstappen said: “They had pole position in Silverstone and they were ahead in Hungary where they definitely had more pace than us.
“You shouldn’t look at stats. You should look at the realistic pace.
“In the break I told the team ‘we really need to speed things up here’, because otherwise Mercedes are going to run away with it. And I think we did pick it up a bit.
“I feel like we still need a bit more but it’s heading into the right direction but it will definitely swing both ways.
“We just have to keep on it and keep pushing and keep bringing new bits to the car.”
Meanwhile, Red Bull boss Christian Horner hailed Verstappen’s victory in his home race– which he said felt like being “in a nightclub for three days”.
The Dutch fans, who had been partying all week, were sent home happy with Horner praising their support for his driver.
He said: “There’s a fantastic atmosphere here and I’ve never seen a reaction like that in my whole career, the fans in Holland are incredible.”