RACE REPORT | F1 Netherlands 2024

The 2024 F1 Dutch Grand Prix didn’t offer much drama, however, McLaren fans are celebrating. Lando Norris won his first race from pole position with a 22-second gap to Max Verstappen, marking the second victory of his career.

On Saturday, Lando Norris won the qualifying session for the Dutch Grand Prix, significantly outpacing Max Verstappen off more than 3 tenths. Oscar Piastri and George Russell secured the second row of the grid, while Perez and Leclerc took the third row.

However, the Sundayrace didn’t start well for the pole-sitter Lando Norris as he lost his first place immediately in the first turn to Max Verstappen. The reaction time from the Brit wasn’t bad but Max Verstappen stormed to the first turn and took a lead.

Oscar Piastri, in McLaren’s second car, starting originally in third, also lost one position right after the start in favor of George Russell. Charles Leclerc, managed to get in front of Sergio Perez in the first turn as well as Pierre Gasly who overtook both Aston Martin’s, gaining two positions right away. Kevin Magnussen locked up his rear left tyre and made a trip to the gravel right after the start.

Norris, even after the bad start, managed to hold onto Verstappen for many laps with an average gap of 1.5 seconds. Then on lap 18, with the help of DRS, Norris snatched the leader position from Verstappen, under a big applause from the grandstands.

The first series of pit stops for the leading drivers started on lap 24, with Ferrari calling Charles Lerclerc for a fresh set of hard tyres. Thanks to this strategy Leclerc managed to get in front of Piastri and Russell.

Later on, Piastri managed to overtake Russell, however, he lacked the pace to catch up on Lerclerc, who, despite the problems that Ferrari had during the weekend, amazingly secured a third place.

With a bit more than 20 laps left till the end, both of the Mercedes drivers decided to stop for a fresh set of soft tyres, hoping for a better position in the end. However, that didn’t work out as they imagined. Because of this bad decision, Russell lost 2 positions, which he wasn’t able to gain back and finished only P7. Hamilton made his way through the field and finished P8, despite starting P14.

2024 Dutch Grand Prix results: