A clean sweep for Norris on Verstappen’s home turf

Lando Norris took maximum points in the Dutch Grand Prix, building on yesterday’s pole position by taking the race win as well as setting the race fastest lap on the very last lap. It means the McLaren driver becomes the 48th driver to do the hat trick in a Grand Prix. With a great start from second, Max Verstappen kept the home crowd’s hopes of another win for their local lad alive. In what was his 200^th Grand Prix appearance, his second place finish was nevertheless important in terms of the championship, as he still has a 70 point lead over Norris with nine races remaining. Charles Leclerc was third, thus securing Ferrari’s twelfth podium finish of the season. 

This was McLaren’s 186^th win, the third this season. In fourth place, Oscar Piastri is the only driver to have completed all 917 laps of this season’s races so far.

THE DAY ON TRACK   

16 drivers chose to line up on the grid on the Medium, while three – Hamilton, Tsunoda and Bottas – opted for the Soft and Magnussen started from pit lane on the Hard. Three quarters of the drivers ran a one-stop race, fitting the Hard as their second set (Magnussen switched to the Medium). The Mercedes drivers made two stops, with Hamilton using two sets of C3 and Russell one, while Tsunoda, Bottas and Zhou used all three available compounds and Albon used to sets of C2 split by one stint on the Hard.

Hulkenberg produced the longest stint of the race, doing 57 laps on the Hard. The prize on the Medium goes to Piastri (33 laps), while Hamilton did 24 on the Soft.

MARIO ISOLA – PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT   

“A very intense race, where we witnessed one driver and one team – Lando Norris and McLaren – demonstrate clear superiority over his rivals and team-mate. Behind him, there was a great battle within the two groups of teams which have emerged this season: the leading group, made up of McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes and the rest of the field, all fighting for the remaining points.

“In terms of strategy, we had our predictions going into the race confirmed, namely that the one-stop was the quickest option. From the small amount of data acquired during free practice and based on earlier simulations, we expected to see more cars run the Soft to benefit from its performance advantage over the Medium, but probably, the majority of teams decided to tackle the first stint more cautiously given there was not much information available to them. In fact, the Soft proved to be up to the task, as was evident with Hamilton, as he was the driver who made up the most places from his grid position, starting on the C3 and then opting to use it again for his third stint.”

Abbie Pulling leaves Zandvoort with a points haul of 43, more than any of the other F1 Academy drivers competing in this the fourth of seven rounds of the second season of this series. The Alpine-Rodin driver took pole for Race 1 which she then went on to win and she finished third in Race 2. The English girl thus extends her lead in the championship on 190 points, 71 more than Doriane Pin. The French Mercedes-Prema driver won Race 2, having started from pole. She had crossed the line in second place in the first race, but was then relegated to fifth with a penalty for a jumped start. The Ferrari-Prema driver, Maya Weug, twice finished on the podium, third in Race 1 and second in Race 2. It should be noted that both races were run this morning as yesterday’s race had to be postponed because of the bad weather.

The next round of the F1 Academy takes place in Singapore from 20 to 22 September, on the same card as the 18^th Grand Prix of 2024.