Luke’s Weekend Review – Dutch GP 2024

On Lap 21 we see Leclerc setting up another charge on Piastri as he seemed to had backed off a bit for a while to recharge and I must say, Leclerc is doing a superb job keeping up with a McLaren while keeping the Red Bull of Sergio Perez behind him in what you can call the 4^th fastest car this weekend.

On Lap 24 we see Hamilton come into the pits to get rid of his softs and I must say he did a pretty good job taking those tyres to Lap 24 while still pushing and overtaking. On the same lap we hear Verstappen once more saying that he can’t go any faster as the car is not responding to his inputs while Lando opens the gap up to 4 seconds, this must have been quite frustrating for the defending World Champion as Norris is his only rival for the Drivers Championship and they were also at his home race in Netherlands where Verstappen was looking to win for the 4^th time in a row at his home race.

Leclerc comes in to attempt the undercut on both Russell and Piastri on Lap 25 from 5^th and comes back out in 9^th after a neat 2.4 second pitstop from Ferrari. Mercedes immediately reacts and pits Russell from 3^rd, however the mechanics at Mercedes didn’t have as good of a stop as Ferrari with a 3.4 second stop and Leclerc manages to undercut Russell as he goes up to 7^th as he overtook Alonso on his Outlap. McLaren on the other hand went the other direction as on Lap 27 they come on the radio telling Piastri that they are going Plan A +5 extending his run by 5 laps in an attempt to overcut Leclerc and get a tyre deficit towards the end of the race.

The pitstops continue on Lap 28 as we see Verstappen coming in for a stop from 2^nd and comes back out in 3^rd while McLaren respond immediately and pit Norris on Lap 29 to avoid being undercut given they had the gap in front to do so. McLaren had a bit of a slower stop, but this was ok still as Lando comes out in 4^th ahead of Verstappen with the 3 drivers ahead yet to pit. One of those drivers was Perez who pit from 2^nd on Lap 30 to come back out in 9^th and this must have been a relief for Norris as he didn’t have to worry about Perez trying to slow him down in an attempt to get Verstappen to close in. Sainz also pits on Lap 31 from 2^nd, and he also comes back out in 9^th very close to Perez thanks to another fairly quicker stop than Perez.

More pitstops as we see Alonso pit on Lap 32 as he gets out of the way of Perez on the chicane of Turn 12 and then give Sainz some DRS assistance down the main straight while he dips into the pits. ON Lap 33 we see Gasly pitting from 6^th and coming out in 12^th after a great first stint, there was a bit of an incident when Gasly was leaving the pits as he started going while there was a mechanic still adjusting his front wing and luckily no one was hurt thanks to quick reflexes. This was noted down to the stewards for a potential unsafe release but later announced that there was no further investigation needed. To close off the pit stops we finally see Piastri pitting from 1^st on lap 34 and comes out in 5^th behind Russell but with fresher tyres to take him to the end to try and get on that podium.

By Lap 36, Norris managed to open the gap to Verstappen up to 8 seconds and by this point you got to think that he has the race in the bag unless some incident happens that might cause a Safety Car. On Lap 38 we see Stroll get noted down for speeding in the pitlane earlier and later a 5 second penalty was announced for this. By Lap 40, Piastri managed to close in on Russell and went for a move into Turn 1, Russell fights back but by Turn 2, the man from down under was able to get past Russell and started his pursuit for Leclerc to get into 3^rd place. On the same lap a bit further back we see Kevin Magnussen get overtaken by 4 cars on the last corner as Albon, Gasly and both Astons make it past him. Kevin was still out on the Hard tyres he started the race on in an attempt to wait for a Safety Car and manage to get a cheap stop. Gasly after getting past Magnussen saw the opportunity and went for a move on Albon into Turn 1 on the outside which I must say, Gasly made look easy.

Sainz on Lap 43 started to put the pressure on Perez at this stage of the race and on Lap 46 we see Sainz go for a move but Perez defends well and keeps the Spaniard behind, the same happened on Lap 46 as Perez was defending quite well but the fairytale stopped on Lap 47 as Sainz managed to get a great exit on the last corner and slungshot past Perez into Turn 1and moves into 6^th place. A bit further ahead for the fight for P3 we see Piastri right on the back of Leclerc now and also goes for a move on Lap 47, but he just wasn’t close enough. Piastri would have wanted to clear Leclerc ASAP so that he could have the chance to go for a run at Verstappen while his tyres were still fresher than the guys ahead of him but by Lap 53, Leclerc was able to get Piastri out of DRS threat which is quite impressive once more by Leclerc to hold the McLaren behind.

On Lap 49 we see Hamilton pit again for a fresh pair of softs as he had a free stop behind him in an attempt to go for Perez in 7^th and Sainz in 6^th while also going for the fastest lap. Sainz at this stage however had impressive pace and was right up Russell’s gearbox on Lap 55 and shockingly, Mercedes call Russell into the pits for a scrubbed set of softs, he comes out ahead of his teammate Hamilton but lost 2 places in the process. But it might have been inevitable that Sainz and Perez would have got him with the lack of pace he had, at least this way, he could try and come back at them with fresh softs.

Fast forward to Lap 65 and we see Piastri go for another charge on Leclerc, but again Piastri was unsuccessful in making the move stick as Leclerc had saved enough performance in his tyres and battery to hold off the McLaren behind.

At the end of the race we see Lando Norris take the chequered flag followed by Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso forming the Top 10, Norris finished the race 22.8 seconds ahead of Verstappen which is something that was unheard of before the Summer Break showing the great work McLaren are doing on that car and taking the challenge to Red Bull.

Norris also took the fastest lap of the race and the Driver of the Day award making it a Hatrick for all the prizes. Apparently, Hamilton had asked his team if he needs to go for the fastest lap on the last lap again which the team responded that they don’t think so, but Norris got the fastest lap by 0.071 seconds on the last lap.

Who do you think was the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the Dutch GP? We head now to Monza for the Italian GP next weekend.