Dutch Grand Prix Recap: A Different Shade of Orange

By: Ana Laura Macchiarella

"Dutch Grand Prix 2024" by Denny Minonne

We are back to Formula 1 after the summer break! Welcome to the 15th round of this

year's World Championship, the Dutch Grand Prix at the Zandvoort Circuit. This race was off the calendar for a long time after the 1985 season, returned in 2019, and we’ve been racing in the Netherlands every year after. Since its re-introduction, Max Verstappen has gotten pole position and won every single time. But with how close the championship is getting, let’s see if McLaren can change that.

Paddock gossip, the driver market, and free practice

Since I last wrote a Formula 1 article, a few things have gone down. Carlos Sainz has

signed with Williams, Esteban Ocon with Haas, and most recently Jack Doohan with Alpine. In

regards to the three empty seats left on the grid, Stake, VCARB, and Mercedes, there are many rumors. Even though Helmut Marko said Liam Lawson would be driving next year, and Toto Wolff somewhat let it slip that Kimi Antonelli is the top pick for the seat, nothing is confirmed. Just remember to take every rumor with a grain of salt, even if sometimes they end up being true. Free practices were weird to say the least. The changing weather conditions caused the sessions to not go as planned, particularly the third one. The three practice sessions saw Lando Norris, George Russell, and strangely Pierre Gasly topping the timing charts. During FP3, there were quite a few drivers that didn’t even set times, and Logan Sargeant had a particularly bad crash. His car was pretty much ruined, and so he was unable to participate in Qualifying. Verstappen was also complaining about the car, saying “too slow, simple as that”. But in retrospect, due to the odd weather conditions, the free practices weren’t accurate measures of how the cars would behave, so we just had to wait until Qualifying to really see the cars shine.

Qualifying

Q1 didn’t see much action. Due to the crash he had, Logan Sargeant made no appearance during the Quali and got an immediate P20. The very end of this quarter was a little chaotic, with Russell, Sainz, and Perez rapidly improving to get out of the drop zone. By the end of the 18 minutes, Ricciardo, Ocon, and both Stakes got axed. Q2 was also relatively calm, but saw some shocking eliminations from Hamilton and Sainz. The two drivers were joined by Tsunoda and both Haas drivers in the drop zone. Albon and Stroll were almost in their position, but made some impressive improvements. Q3 was close, the times mere seconds apart for some drivers, but Lando Norris was able to secure pole position. A few penalties were handed out after the fact, including a pit-lane start for Kevin Magnussen, a 3-place penalty for Lewis Hamilton, and Alex Albon was disqualified. Taking those penalties into consideration, the starting order was as follows:

P1 - Lando Norris (McLaren)

P2 - Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

P3 - Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

P4 - George Russell (Mercedes)

P5 - Sergio Perez (Red Bull)

P6 - Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

P7 - Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

P8 - Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

P9 - Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

P10 - Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

P11 - Yuki TSunoda (VCARB)

P12 - Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)

P13 - Daniel Ricciardo (VCARB)

P14 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

P15 - Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

P16 - Valtteri Bottas (Stake)

P17 - Zhou Guanyu (Stake)

P18 - Logan Sargeant (Williams)

P19 - Alex Albon (Williams)

P20/Pit Lane - Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

The Race

Lando Norris has never been able to convert pole position into the lead, and it still didn’t

happen. Max Verstappen was able to take the lead into turn 1, and the top three turned into

Verstappen, Norris, and Russell. Everything was pretty calm until lap 17, when the Red Bull

began to complain about the tyres’ grip. The gap between him and Norris got smaller and

smaller, and just a lap later the McLaren driver took the lead. Verstappen also had a pit stop soon after, which didn’t help much. Lando pitted around lap 29, and dropped down the order. Resulting in Piastri taking the lead, but Lando took it back soon. The 40th lap saw a 5 car battle in the main straight, and the whole race had some decent action through the midfield. Since he retook the lead, Norris had been building up an insane gap to Verstappen. By the end of the race, the number 4 driver had a 22.9 second gap to Verstappen. The largest he’s had so far. And so, Lando Norris is now a 2-time Formula 1 race winner, accompanied by Verstappen (P2) and Leclerc (P3) on the podium. The fastest lap point was also awarded to Norris, and so was driver of the day. The rest of the point scorers were as follows:

P4 - Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

P5 - Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

P6 - Sergio Perez (Red Bull)

P7 - George Russell (Mercedes)

P8 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

P9 - Pierre Gasly (Alpine)

P10 - Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

Having said all of this, that’s a wrap on this year’s Dutch Grand Prix! I hope to see you next time.