LANDO NORRIS WINS THE 2024 DUTCH GRAND PRIX

McLaren driver Lando Norris seized his second victory overall and this season. Despite a brief overtake from Verstappen at the start of the race, Norris retook his position and remained steady until the very end, beating the Dutch driver by more than 20 seconds. 

Max Verstappen of Red Bull (driving on home soil) came in second place, while Charles Leclerc of Ferrari finished third after starting from sixth place. Fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri finished in fourth place after Leclerc undercutted him in the pits. 

Red Bull vs McLaren - What Now? 

Red Bull still leads the Constructors’ Championship with 434 points, while McLaren is second with 404 points. The gap between the teams is now 30 points. Grand Prix winners earn 25 points. If Norris can keep up with momentum in the three upcoming races (Monza, Azerbaijan, and Singapore), McLaren could quickly close the gap and even overtake the rankings by October. If Oscar Piastri can have podium finishes in that same time frame and keep at least one of the Red Bull drivers at bay, it would significantly close that increasingly shrinking team gap.

Though Sergio Perez of Red Bull finished in sixth place today (after starting in fifth), the ten-point difference between himself and Verstappen (who earned 18 with his second-place finish) allowed McLaren to earn an extra 11 points today.

Undoubtedly, all eyes will be on the McLaren and Red Bull drivers at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza next week. Whatever the outcome is, it will undoubtedly unleash a domino effect for the remainder of the season. 

Perez v. Ricciardo 

Sergio Perez had a steady race, starting from fifth place and dropping to sixth. Daniel Ricciardo’s results were disappointing, with a thirteenth-place finish (fluctuating below P10) and no points earned. If Ricciardo wants to be a serious contender for the Red Bull or even keep his seat on VCARB, he will have to perform better in upcoming races, lest he wants to lose his seat prospects to Liam Lawson. 

Ferrari’s Surprising Results

Leclerc was understandably not keen on the team’s post-qualifying results the day before, remarking, “...the race pace here doesn’t really matter. It’s very, very difficult to overtake, so I expect us to finish in a similar position tomorrow. Time will tell, and if there’s the opportunity to do something much better then I’ll try and take that opportunity.” 

Sainz was slightly more optimistic, saying, “...hopefully, I can get myself into the top-eight – that would get us some points, and we move from there.”

The odds, despite the bleakness of yesterday, worked in their favor. The Prancing Horse had a pleasant finish today with a third-place finish for Charles Leclerc and fifth-place for Carlos Sainz, who steadily climbed up from P10 after a rough qualifying session yesterday (and a slight bump after a few adjustments in starting places for other drivers). 

Ferrari is still in third place in the Constructors’ Championship with 370 points. If the team can maintain a stable string of successful finishes and good fortune, it should be able to keep its current ranking. 

Other Notable Highlights

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes finished in eighth place after being dealt a place penalty after impeding Sergio Perez during yesterday’s Qualifying. 

Kevin Magnussen of Haas started from the pit lane (and therefore P20) after his team opted to change his power units after qualifying. This adjusted the starting positions of rear-starting Williams drivers Alex Albon (whose qualifying results were disqualified) and Logan Sargeant (who didn’t participate in Qualifying due to a crashing incident in FP3) to P19 and P18, respectively. 

A five-second pit-stop penalty was handed to Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll for speeding in the pit lane. 

Follow along as we cover the Italian Grand Prix weekend next week, August 30th to September 1st, 2024, here on Vintage & Coupe.