First Grand Slam for Piastri, first podium for Hadjar

The Dutch Grand Prix was incident-packed and exciting, ending in victory for Oscar Piastri. Having started from pole, he went on to set the race fastest lap and led from lights out to chequered flag, thus securing the first Grand Slam of his young career. It was the Australian’s ninth win, thus equalling his fellow countryman and manager Mark Webber and his team-mate, Lando Norris who had to retire today. It was win number 201 for McLaren, its fifth at Zandvoort.

Max Verstappen made it to the podium in second place, the first time the Red Bull driver has finished in the top three since the Canadian Grand Prix. This was his fifth podium from five races at Zandvoort, with three wins and two second places. In third spot, Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) secured his maiden podium, making him the youngest French driver and fifth youngest overall, to finish in the top three, at the age of 20 years, 11 months and three days. It was the Italian team’s first trip to the podium since the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which was also down to a French driver, when Pierre Gasly finished third.

THE DAY ON TRACK   

All three slick compounds came into play right from the choices made on the starting grid. For the opening stint, 14 drivers chose the Medium, four went with the Soft and two opted for the Hard.

The C2 compound saw the most use, covering almost 50% of all laps completed (658 laps, 48.28%) followed by the Medium (399, 29.27%) and the Soft (306, 22,45%). The longest stint overall was completed by Bearman in the Haas who did 53 laps on the Hard, while Verstappen went furthest on the Medium (30) with Lawson heading the list on Softs with 25.

MARIO ISOLA – PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT   

“Despite earlier predictions to the contrary, this Grand Prix was unpredictable right to the end, especially because of the many neutralisations following crashes and retirements. Piastri won not just because he had a very good car, but also because he perfectly managed all the crucial moments, especially the three restarts after the Safety Car periods.

“As for the tyres, the most positive aspect to emerge from this weekend is that, even though we brought a softer trio of dry weather compounds here than last year, all three of them proved to be competitive in the race, as can be seen from the way the mileage was divided between them (as mentioned above). The Hard did the bulk of the work, delivering a good level of performance over very long stints, for example from the two Haas drivers who covered over two thirds of the race on one set of C2s. This compound actually behaved better than it had done in the three free practice sessions, so that the drivers were able to push hard immediately after the restarts. Those like the McLaren and Aston Martin drivers who had been able to save both sets for the race were thus able to benefit from this. As for the Medium and Soft, their performance was pretty similar, which is important, especially in the case of the softer of the two.

“Now we move on to Pirelli’s home Grand Prix where we will celebrate with all the fans the milestone we reached today, namely 500 Formula 1 Grand Prix participations, making us the tyre supplier with the most appearances in motor racing’s blue riband category. It is a source of pride and the result of the passion, expertise and commitment demonstrated by so many men and women working at Pirelli since the 1950s. We will start counting again from Monza!"

Maya Weug made a clean sweep of the points on offer in the second race at Zandvoort. The Dutch Scuderia Ferrari-MP driver made the most of the pole position she secured yesterday morning to lead the race from start to finish, also taking the additional point for setting the fastest race lap. The weekend thus saw the Dutch dominate as Nina Gademan won yesterday’s race. Joining Weug on the podium were second placed Alicia Palmowski (Red Bull Racing-Campos) championship leader Doriane Pin (Mercedes-Prema), who now has 127 points. But Weug has closed significantly on the Frenchwoman, as she is just 20 points behind in second place. With two rounds remaining in Singapore and Las Vegas, Chloe Chambers (Red Bull Ford-Campos is third on 93 points having failed to score this weekend.