The F1 summer break comes to a close with the Dutch Grand Prix this weekend, as the circus descends on the seaside town of Zandvoort.

It's been a season dominated by one driver thus far, with Max Verstappen well on the way to making it three world titles in a row.

He'll be looking to continue that run in front of the adoring Dutch faithful, then, and it's a potential record that he could match that we start off with for this weekend's preview piece...

Verstappen eyes Sebastian Vettel record

Max Verstappen has broken a number of records in his F1 career so far and he is closing in on another benchmark, and an impressive one at that.

Currently, Sebastian Vettel holds the record for most wins in a row in F1 with 9 - being set in 2013 as he stormed to the world championship title in the second part of that particular year.

However, the German could well see that being surpassed in the next week or so, with Max able to match the record with a win this weekend and then break it with victory at Monza next weekend.

Right now, it's hard to make a case for anyone stopping him, too.

Who'll return from the summer in form?

The buzzwords of 'recharge', 'reset', and 'reflect' were all in force yesterday as the drivers took to their media duties for the first time after the summer break, and it remains to be seen just who is going to come out of the downtime in decent shape.

In truth, it's a summer break that has flown by and the second half of the season has come around in no time, so it'll be interesting to see who can buck any downward trends from the first part of the campaign or, indeed, keep momentum going.

There are still 10 races to go this year and so there's plenty of opportunity to salvage, or indeed ruin, the season.

Mercedes could be strong

Mercedes are looking to seal second place in the championship over the second part of the year, and feel as though Zandvoort could be a track that plays into their hands.

Lewis Hamilton hinted as such on Thursday in the Netherlands, citing the strong performance that they had at the Hungaroring - with that circuit of a similar twisty and tight profile to the one here on the Dutch coast this weekend.

Indeed, the Briton took pole in Budapest earlier this year, though was obviously beaten by Max Verstappen into the first corner and that was that in terms of any battle for race victory, but they can still be hopeful of a strong result this weekend.

Wet weather could play a factor

There's been a lot of wet running this year - most weekends seem to have had some at some point this season - and it looks as though the Dutch GP weekend could well be set to follow that trend.

We had a heavy cloudburst on Thursday afternoon and more rain seems to be in the forecast on both Saturday and Sunday - though time will tell if that is exactly what comes to pass this weekend.

Even so, the prospect of more rain hitting seems realistic, and the drivers will need to be able to cope with that.

Battle for 2nd in Drivers' standings hots up

Whilst everyone accepts that Max Verstappen is going to win a third world title this year by the looks of things, the battle for second in the Drivers' standings appears to be offering at least some level of excitement.

Sergio Perez should really be the favourite for second spot given the car he has available to him but both Hamilton and Fernando Alonso have stated of late that they feel they can reel in the Mexican, whilst the Ferrari drivers will also want to try and join the party.

In a season dominated by one person, the fight for second could at least provide some excitement and you can expect F1 to try and build as much hype around it as possible - at least for as long as it's close.