The Dutch GP chronicle
Landon Norris won his second GP of 2024 and stormed the Zandvoort ‘fortress’, becoming the first driver to beat Max Verstappen in Holland. An impressive domination by the Englishman from McLaren, who only made a mistake at the start – once again giving the position to his rival – before taking back what he had stolen on the track and flying towards a victory in a solitary escape which is a clear demonstration of the MCL38’s supremacy over the competition at the moment.
The home hero had to settle for the second step of the podium, bringing his streak of GPs without a win to five. The third step of the podium was instead taken by a fantastic Charles Leclerc – with Ferrari – author of a super defensive masterpiece, managing to keep the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri behind him for almost half the race, who had much newer tyres at his disposal than those of the Monegasque.
The words of the top 3
Lando Norris (1st, McLaren): “Thank you, that’s great. It wasn’t a perfect race because of the first lap, again. But then everything went well, the car was incredible. I felt comfortable and I could push. I passed Max – which was the most important thing – and then I went on calmly. The race was linear, even if it’s always difficult, but very enjoyable. Orange? We have so many fans here! Jokes aside, I also have a lot of Dutch fans and I thank them too. From lap 5-6 I expected Max to take an advantage. When he didn’t, I understood that we could fight. He was losing ground while my pace was increasing. When I passed him I understood that I could push”.
Max Verstappen (2nd, Red Bull): “You always try to do your best. We started well and tried everything today, but I think it was clear on the track that we weren’t fast enough. I tried to finish at least second. Start? I was confident because we always started well. But then there was the race and the situation was this: I could only finish second.”
Charles Leclerc (3rd, Ferrari): “From 6th to 3rd? I’m very surprised. I’m not often happy with a third place, but after today’s race we can be totally happy with what we did. We struggled since Friday, but then in the race we found some extra pace and executed a perfect strategy. We managed to get ahead of our rivals and keep them behind. I’m very happy to start the second part of the season like this. Start? I knew it was a great opportunity, I didn’t know that in the race we would have the pace to keep the others behind. I attacked at the start, but I never thought I would get on the podium.”
#Norris #Max #didnt #run #understood
