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Lando Norris took maximum points
in the Dutch Grand Prix, building on yesterday’s pole position by taking the
race win as well as setting the race fastest lap on the very last lap. It
means the McLaren driver becomes the 48th driver to do the triple in a Grand
Prix. With a great start from second, Max Verstappen kept the home crowd’s
hopes of another win for their local lad alive. In what was his 200th Grand
Prix appearance, his second place finish was nevertheless important in terms
of the championship, as he still has a 70 point lead over Norris with nine
races remaining. Charles Leclerc was third, thus securing Ferrari’s twelfth
podium finish of the season.
This was McLaren’s 186th win, the third this season. In fourth place, Oscar
Piastri is the only driver to have completed all 917 laps of this season’s
races so far.
THE DAY ON
TRACK:
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.
MARIO ISOLA - MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR
"A very intense race, where we witnessed one driver and one team – Lando
Norris and McLaren – demonstrate clear superiority over his rivals and
team-mate. Behind him, there was a great battle within the two groups of
teams which have emerged this season: the leading group, made up of McLaren,
Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes and the rest of the field, all fighting for
the remaining points.
“In terms of strategy, we had our predictions going into the race confirmed,
namely that the one-stop was the quickest option. From the small amount of
data acquired during free practice and based on earlier simulations, we
expected to see more cars run the Soft to benefit from its performance
advantage over the Medium, but probably, the majority of teams decided to
tackle the first stint more cautiously given there was not much information
available to them. In fact, the Soft proved to be up to the task, as was
evident with Hamilton, as he was the driver who made up the most places from
his grid position, starting on the C3 and then opting to use it again for
his third stint."
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