Race Report: Lando Norris wins Dutch GP

Lando Norris converted his pole position to victory at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday ahead of local hero Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. Lando took pole by three tenths and held that performance gap over 72 laps to take the win while Max Verstappen struggled home in second.

Win

A big win for McLaren and Lando Norris who, in aggregate, had a three tenths pace advantage and that held over to Sudnay as after 72 laps, he finished 22 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. Both McLaren’s got jumped at the start and Oscar Piastri was unable to get back to the podium in the waning laps of the race settling for fourth but consolidating a good points haul in the constructor’s championship.

A win for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who finished third and given Ferrari’s pace all weekend long, it was a terrific drive to hold off Piastri on fresher tires. Carlos Sainz also had a good race making up several positions to come home 5th. Both cars ahead of Mercedes is critical for the constructor’s title.

A win for Pierre Gasly who looked feisty all day and managed to get his Alpine to P9 for his new boss Ollie Oakes on his debut as team boss.

A win for Daniel Ricciardo who was bested in qualifying yesterday by his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, but managed to beat his teammate during the race to finish in P12.

Fail

A fail for Red Bull as Max took the lead on lap one but then suffered for grip and pace against the McLaren of Lando Norris. I wonder if Red Bull suffered more tire wear on both sets of compounds relatively equally. Sergio Perez did better but still finished one spot down from where he started and he needed to be ahead of a McLaren but wasn’t able to do so. The remainder of the season could be death by a thousand cuts in terms of the constructor’s championship.

A fail for Mercedes finishing 7th and 8th for George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. A poor qualifying from Hamilton and a penalty left him starting in P14 and George wasn’t able to make much gain despite stating 4th. The team seemed to struggle on the Hard compounds more Than the mediums but I had them placing much higher this weekend given their recent pace and victories. Zandvoort clearly not a friendly track for Mercedes.

A fail for Williams who had a tough weekend with Logan Sergeant destroying a car in qualifying and Alex Albon’s car being outside FIA regulations with their new upgrades.

It’s not quite a fail but I expected more from Aston Martin who qualified well but seemed to also struggle with tire wear leaving Fernando Alonso in P10 and Lance Stroll out of the points.

WTH

What is wrong with Sauber? Dead last again. I’ll also be interested in reading what Yuki’s issues were as well as Esteban Ocon’s given his teammate was in P9.

Also not sure why they boxed George Russell late. Were his tires dropping off a cliff? They ceded track position at a track that is hard to gain track position. Piastri’s crew chose correctly but Mercedes gambled and it didn’t work.

Pirelli Report:

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.

Dutch GP Results: