{"id":1139,"date":"2026-08-23T16:34:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T19:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/?p=1139"},"modified":"2026-08-23T16:34:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T19:34:29","slug":"red-bull-confirms-max-verstappen-unhurt-after-crash-praises-liam-lawson-7th-place-zandvoort-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/red-bull-confirms-max-verstappen-unhurt-after-crash-praises-liam-lawson-7th-place-zandvoort-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull confirms Verstappen unhurt after crash, praises Lawson&#8217;s 7th-place Zandvoort drive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key takeaways<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Health update:<\/strong> Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies confirmed that <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/max-verstappen-renews-2026-f1-criticism-after-zandvoort-qualifying-easy-to-drive-on-the-limit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Max Verstappen<\/a> suffered no injuries in his high-speed Lap 1 crash at Zandvoort and will be fit to race at Monza.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Praise for Lawson:<\/strong> Mekies commended Liam Lawson for a solid drive to 7th place, noting that the New Zealander extracted the maximum possible result while serving as Red Bull&#8217;s sole entry.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No doubt on strategy:<\/strong> Red Bull dismissed suggestions of a one-stop strategy, confirming that a two-stop plan using medium compound tires was always the optimal path for Lawson.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video class=\"video-js vjs-big-play-centered\" data-gp-vjs=\"1\" controls src=\"https:\/\/grandepremio-portal.b-cdn.net\/2026\/08\/Choque-Verstappen-GP-Paises-Bajos-ES.mp4\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Max Verstappen crashed heavily on the opening lap at Zandvoort (Video: Reprodu\u00e7\u00e3o\/F1TV)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies confirmed that Max Verstappen is unharmed and ready for the upcoming Italian Grand Prix after a heavy opening-lap crash abruptly ended his home race at Circuit Zandvoort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Verstappen triggered the afternoon&#8217;s sole red flag after losing rear control through Turn 14 on damp track patches, striking the outer barrier at high speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Max is fine. He will be in the car next week,&#8221; Mekies told <em>Sky Sports<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Max Verstappen crashed heavily on the opening lap at Zandvoort (Photo: Red Bull Content Pool)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Verstappen out early, Liam Lawson\u2014substituting for the injured Isack Hadjar\u2014carried Red Bull&#8217;s hopes alone. Lawson delivered a clean, steady drive to secure 7th place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It is very difficult to transition into a car under these conditions, so Liam did what he could,&#8221; Mekies evaluated. &#8220;He did a very good job in qualifying yesterday, staying just a tenth off Max. Today was a bit of a lonely race for him. Without Max&#8217;s benchmark, it&#8217;s hard to judge pure pace, but he brought home points. It was likely the best possible result.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mekies also rejected questions regarding tire strategy, clarifying that Red Bull never considered a single pit stop for Lawson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;There was no discussion about doing a one-stop. It was very clear to us that it would be a two-stop race,&#8221; Mekies added. &#8220;The compounds performed similarly to what we saw from rivals, so sticking with mediums was the right call.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Formula 1 heads to Monza next for the 2026 Italian Grand Prix from September 4\u20136. <strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/\">GRANDE PR\u00caMIO<\/a><\/strong> covers all paddock news live from Zandvoort with reporter Leonid Kliuev. Follow all updates on our <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/news\/\">news page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies provided a positive update on Max Verstappen while backing Liam Lawson&#8217;s strategy following the Dutch Grand Prix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020312736,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"Liam Lawson","42wp_featured_image_credits":"Red Bull Content Pool","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[196,64,66],"42wp_author":[58],"class_list":["post-1139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","tag-liam-lawson","tag-max-verstappen","tag-red-bull","42wp_author-vicente-soella"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1140,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions\/1140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020312736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1139"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=1139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}