Dutch Delight for Norris at Zandvoort

It was a return to the top step of the podium for Lando Norris as he claimed his second race victory in front of a sea of orange fans. The first race after the summer break was an absolute classic with a lot of out-of-place drivers making their way through the pack. So with a lot to analyse from Leclerc’s brilliant defence to points for Alpine, let’s get stuck in.

Qualifying

Qualifying saw Norris claim his fourth career pole position at Zandvoort, proving that his McLaren had a clear advantage over the one-lap pace of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. The session also brought some surprises with a few big-name Q2 eliminations.

Q1

The first round of qualifying was overshadowed by a huge shunt from Logan Sargeant in FP3, which brought out a red flag, limiting track time before qualifying began. With Sargeant out of the running, it was down to the lone Williams of Alexander Albon to bring home the glory for the team from Grove.

Sergio Perez claimed he was blocked by Lewis Hamilton’s W15 whilst on a flying lap which eventually landed Hamilton a three-place grid drop for Sunday’s race.

Both Kick Saubers were eliminated as well as Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo, with Logan Sargeant setting no time due to his crash earlier in the day.

Q2

It was a tense end to the second qualifying session of the day as it looked set to confirm Q3 for the leading five teams: McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Aston Martin. However, evolving track conditions meant that a lot of midfield drivers including Albon, Lance Stroll, and Pierre Gasly set great lap times, propelling them into the top ten.

This left drivers like Hamilton and Carlos Sainz vulnerable as they failed to set good lap times, resulting in their elimination.

The drivers out in Q2 included: Hamilton, Sainz, Yuki Tsunoda, and both Haas drivers.

Q3

It was a great qualifying session for a few drivers including Lance Stroll, who managed to line up his Aston Martin for P9 on the grid. Stroll’s teammate, Fernando Alonso, put in a remarkable one-lap attempt to qualify for P7.

It was an astonishing effort from Norris who put his McLaren in pole position, an alarming three-and-a-half tenths ahead of the home hero Max Verstappen. Oscar Piastri completed the top three ahead of Russell, Perez, and Leclerc.

Mighty McLaren

It was a dominant display of speed and determination from Lando Norris as he claimed his second career victory at Zandvoort with a winning margin of 22.896 seconds, the largest of this season so far. Norris lost his lead into Turn 1 as predicted by many on social media, with Verstappen delighting his home crowd.

This was all in vain as Norris retook the lead on Lap 18 and built an impressive gap lap-by-lap, increasing his distance to the three-time world champion. Norris seemed very nonchalant about his pole position and win, perhaps showing a sign of complacency or normalcy to his success, despite not having won a race since Miami three months ago.

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella is convinced his star driver can emulate Sebastian Vettel’s 2013 title charge by winning nine consecutive races, which doesn't seem impossible given the sheer pace displayed by the McLaren cars this weekend.

**Andrea Stella on Norris’ title charge:**

“In the drivers’ championship, we definitely wanted to keep our head and our focus on the fact that it was possible. We even talked and looked at what Vettel did in 2013 and we said: ‘we may do the same. Why not?' We need to keep the focus. We need to think this is possible.”

Whether Norris and McLaren can convert a 70-point deficit to the first championship for the Woking-based team since 2008 will depend on if the car is consistently as good as it was in Zandvoort, which may seem unlikely. With Piastri also putting in great results, the 30-point gap in the constructor’s championship is now rapidly closing due to Sergio Perez’s inconsistent performance.

The Unsung Hero

It was an astounding drive from both Leclerc and Sainz at Zandvoort after the drivers downplayed the team’s prospects, especially with the ‘qualifying king’ Charles Leclerc a second off the pace at the end of Q3.

With Sainz starting P10 after Alex Albon’s disqualification, he fought well to claim P5 after a beautiful overtake on Sergio Perez. Charles Leclerc was also pretty apprehensive about his end position for the race, given that Oscar Piastri was a favourite for the final podium spot.

**Leclerc on his P3 finish at Zandvoort:**

*“I went for pass, it all worked well, but never would I have thought I would stand on the podium after such a difficult weekend for the team.”*

With Carlos Sainz also pretty impressed by his Ferrari’s pace, he stressed how important it was that the team needs to understand where it’s going wrong. With the outbound Spaniard heading to Williams for next season, we’re sure he’s aiming for a great finish to his four-season-long stint with the Scuderia.

It was also surprising that Leclerc didn’t get Driver of the Day (DOTD), as he defended valiantly against Piastri piloting a rocketship of a McLaren. Norris received 24.6% of the vote whilst Leclerc won the hearts of 17.5% of the public, a worrying trend for the DOTD feature.

Is Number 4 Under Threat?

The Dutch Grand Prix marked Verstappen’s 200th F1 race, in a career that has spanned two teams and nine seasons. Where better to celebrate that than his home race? Verstappen’s pace seemed off from the get-go on Friday and didn’t close the gap to the McLarens for the whole weekend.

With Verstappen taking the lead into Turn 1, it finally seemed as if he would get his fourth win in a row at home but that was all ruined about 30 minutes into the race where he was overtaken by a rapid Lando Norris.

The start of the season made it look like normal business was resumed as Verstappen claimed yet another win but quickly lost that advantage just before the summer break, with McLaren and Mercedes making impressive progress to catch up to the Milton Keynes outfit.

**Verstappen on his home Grand Prix weekend:**

*“This weekend was just a bad weekend in general. So we need to understand that. But the last few races, they haven’t really been fantastic. So that in a sense, was already a bit alarming.”*

It’ll be interesting to see if Red Bull can fix its brake and steering issues, which were among the many problems reported by both drivers this weekend. Whether the diminishing points gap in both championships can be rescued by Verstappen’s proven skill and raw pace will depend on the technical direction of the team, which is under new management following Adrian Newey’s departure from the team at the end of this season.

One thing is certain, we’re in for a great title fight for the remaining nine races of 2024!

Listen to a summary of the other key highlights from the Dutch Grand Prix by listening to the latest episode of the Race Reaction Podcast.

Final race classification

1 - Lando NORRIS

2 - Max VERSTAPPEN

3 - Charles LECLERC

4 - Oscar PIASTRI

5 - Carlos SAINZ

6 - Sergio PEREZ

7 - George RUSSELL

8 - Lewis HAMILTON

9 - Pierre GASLY

10 - Fernando ALONSO

11 - Nico HULKENBERG

12 - Daniel RICCIARDO

13 - Lance STROLL

14 - Alexander ALBON

15 - Esteban OCON

16 - Logan SARGEANT

17 - Yuki TSUNODA

18 - Kevin MAGNUSSEN

19 - Valtteri BOTTAS

20 - ZHOU Guanyu