Lando Norris takes dominant Dutch GP victory! Official F1 Journal Dutch Grand Prix Race Report

Lando Norris (pictured) after winning Dutch GP. Credit: Andrew Ferraro via Getty Images

In a dominant drive at Zandvoort, Lando Norris of McLaren picked up just his second career victory at the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon to ignite championship battle.

Norris started from pole and despite losing the lead into turn 1, regained it on track and went on to win the race by over 22 seconds at the end of the 72 lap Dutch Grand Prix. He also picked up the fastest lap to make it a pole position, race win and fastest lap collection from Zandvoort.

The British driver picked up a win, ahead of home favourite Max Verstappen who was looking to equal Jim Clark's win record of four races on Sunday but was unable to due to the sheer pace of Norris' pace compared to Verstappen's Red Bull.

Verstappen would take second place ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who after starting sixth, would collect his second podium in as many rounds after holding off a pressuring Oscar Piastri.

Max Verstappen would come into his home Grand Prix weekend in the Netherlands, with a 78-point championship lead over Lando Norris. 

The story of the weekend so far

There had been a lot of action unfolding across the Dutch Grand Prix weekend so far at Zandvoort with qualifying taking place on Saturday.

Qualifying was with just 19 out of the 20 cars as Logan Sargeant would be unable to participate due to a massive shunt breaking huge amounts of car and creating a significant repair job on Saturday for the Williams mechanics. He would be granted permission to take part in the Grand Prix by the FIA.

The drama would end there for Williams on Saturday, as after qualifying, Alex Albon was disqualified after the session for an illegal floor. After such a good initial qualifying, where he made Q3 and finished eighth, he would be disqualified and would therefore start 19th behind Sargeant.

There would be shocks in Q2 of qualifying with Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton eliminated in the second part of qualifying. In the final classification, it would be 11th for Lewis Hamilton but he would be handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Sergio Perez in Q1 so would start 14th.

By Q3, with a dominant lap, it would be Lando Norris taking pole position by over three tneths ahead of Max Verstappen, who would be denied a fourth successive pole position at the Zandvoort circuit.

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How the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix unfolded

It would be time for Grand Prix Sunday and unlike the previous two days where wet weather had played a part, dry skies and the sun was shining over the tricky and challenging Zandvoort circuit.

The top two in the championship would share the front row, Lando Norris ahead of Max Verstappen. Oscar Piastri and George Russell would share the second row of the grid and would be eager to cause an upset to the two on the front row.

Kevin Magnussen would be made to start from the pit lane for Haas after changing a component that is against parc freme rules and therefore the common punishment is for that driver to start from the pit lane. Therefore, there would be 19 cars on the grid as it was time for the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix.

The lights went out and the race was underway and a fantastic start from Verstappen saw him breeze into the lead at turn 1 and would have Lando Norris in his mirrors as he got out of the corner and took the lead of the race. 

Meanwhile, George Russell had made his way into third by taking the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Both McLaren cars had lost a position on the opening lap.

End of the first couple of laps and Verstappen had managed to pull over a second clear of Lando Norris, as DRS was enabled at the end of the first lap this was crucial. Verstappen. Norris was out of DRS range and was hoping to find rhythm again.

Lewis Hamilton was hoping to make progress and had got ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda in the first couple of laps. The Visa RB pair were behind him and now he was pressuring Nico Hulkenberg in the Haas for 11th.

Hukenberg's teammate Magnussen was fighting Logan Sargeant into turn 1 but had misjudged his braking and went into the gravel at turn 1. After making up decent ground at the start, he would go to the back of the pack and do it again.

Eventually, down the inside Lewis Hamilton made a move into turn 1 on Nico Hulkenberg and took 11th place with a good pass. He would then set his sights onto the point scoring positions of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, in the Aston Martin cars. 

Soon enough, he would be on the tail of Stroll and would find himself into 10th on lap 14 of the Grand Prix and after starting 14th, Hamilton was now in the points positions and next up on the road was his old teammate Fernando Alonso. 

Onto Lap 17 and the battle for the lead was hotting up as Norris had closed right behind Verstappen and was all over him, looking to regain first place, after starting from pole position.

One lap later and Verstappen was really under pressure and into the first corner, Norris went down the inside of turn 1 and took the lead of the race. A bold but brilliant move from Lando Norris and was now into the lead and where he started the race.

With clean air Norris, began to pull a gap and the McLaren's pace looked really strong over Verstappen, who looked to be struggling with tyre wear. As this was happening, the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was hounding the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

Lewis Hamilton had managed to get ahead of Fernando Alonso but before he could overtake Pierre Gasly, his tyres had dropped off in terms of grip and performance and would subsequently pit, to get rid of the worn soft C3 compound of tyres. He would change onto the C1 hard compound.

On the following couple of laps it would be time for Leclerc to come into the pits after he was trying to find his away ahead of Oscar Piastri but not succeeding. Leclerc would fit the hard compound of tyres.

Lap 28 and Verstappen would pit from second position and would make his first pit stop of the Dutch Grand Prix after losing ground to Norris and would rejoin in fifth place. The following lap to cover a potential undercut Norris would come in and would come out more importantly ahead of Verstappen, but would not keep the lead.

Oscar Piastri would become the new race leader and would maintain it until lap 34 and he would then make his mandatory pit stop and gives up the lead of the race, with Norris retaking it again. Piastri would come out in fifth and would begin to chase after Russell.

Start of lap 40 and chasing and trying to get ahead of George Russell would be no more and Piastri would get his McLaren, ahead of the Mercedes, into fourth and would be hoping to get after Charles Leclerc and re-claim his starting place of third.

A couple of laps later, further back in the order, a five way battle was on between Kevin Magnussen, Alex Albon, Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll. Pierre Gasly made some super moves and got ahead of them all and now led the train of cars and was into 11th place.

By lap 46 and Piastri ​was closing up on Leclerc and becoming a large object in the mirrors of the Ferrari and was looking to try and take that final spot in the podium. He would then be within DRS range. He would persistently try but sadly for Oscar he was unable to do it all the way until lap 52, which would have been causing Oscar some frustration.

Meanwhile, Oscar's McLaren teammate Lando Norris was having a delightful time out in front an had over a 15-second lead.

Hamilton would come in for another change of tyres for soft tyres as he was struggling for pace on the hard compound. He had managed to come out in eighth and would have had lost ground to the other front runners, having to make his way through the field. 

His teammate George Russell would head in for fresh tyres as well, as he was struggling for grip. Like Hamilton, Russell would change onto the soft tyres and rejoined in seventh.

Lando Norris was doing a magnificent job in front and had shown calmness and maturity to an excellent degree on Sunday afternoon. After losing the lead at the start, he didn't give up and remained calm and cool under pressure, believing his own ability.

Not everything had gone to plan in the past and he had failed to maintain his cool and he had things get away from him in Spain and him retiring in Austia would have been a big struggle for him but he was able to use the summer break to full advantage.

Norris would pull a lead of over 22 seconds to Verstappen, who was someone who had such a dominant record at the circuit in the past, but it was a splendid drive from Norris who was leaps and bounds above the rest.

Around the banked final corner on lap 72, he would see the flag first for just the second time in his Formula One career, Lando Norris would be a Grand Prix winner. Lando Norris won the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix and with it driver of the day too.

Norris would secure the win ahead of his championship rival and also took the fastest lap on the very final lap of the Grand Prix with a great job. Max Verstappen would come across the line to finish second, which is where he started. After taking the lead, he may feel disappointed, but the McLaren of Lando Norris was just too quick for the reigning champion, and he would have to settle for second place.

There would be three teams on the podium as Charles Leclerc would collect his second podium in as many races as he held off Oscar Piastri, who had been struggling with dirty air to miss out on a podium. Piastri finished fourth ahead of Carlos Sainz who completed the top five.

Sergio Perez would finish sixth for Red Bull ahead of the two Mercedes cars in seventh and eighth, with George Russell ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Pierre Gasly of Alpine and Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin completed the top 10.

The race makes the championship picture interesting in both championships. Lando Norris' victory and fastest lap sees him close the gap to 70 points to championship leader Max Verstappen, who apart from the fastest lap, limited the damage to his lead as much as possible. 

Charles Leclerc sits third in the standings, 103 points off the championship lead after securing his second podium in a row, but he did lose points to championship leader Verstappen.

In terms of the Constructors Standings, just 30 points separate Red Bull from second place McLaren, after a great result for the Woking-based team. Ferrari sit third in the standings with 64 points separating them from the Red Bull, who are the championship leaders. 

Kick Sauber the only team without a point in 2024 after 15 rounds.

Norris Relishes his McLaren pace to dominantly deliver victory

Simply excellent performance from Lando Norris and McLaren. He showed brilliant pace first of all on Saturday, to take pole position and earn his good spot on the grid. This would be in an attempt to give himself the best chance for victory, to put himself back in the championship fight.

Now the championships have closed, and Norris has delivered the most dominant performance and most matured performance of his Formula 1 career, some would argue, he will be really happy about how his race unravelled.

He never gave up, never lost composure despite losing the lead off the start, and found his way back ahead of his championship rival, Max Verstappen, and would then go onto win the Grand Prix to potentially reignite his championship battle.

Truly tremendous from Lando, he will have the chance to repeat the performance in just one weeks time, for the Italian Grand Prix at the iconic and legendary circuit. Free Practice will begin on Friday with two sessions of three across the weekend.  See you then!

2024 FIA Formula One World Championship: Round 15 - Dutch Grand Prix provisional classification 

1. Lando Norris (Great Britain, McLaren)
2. Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Red Bull Racing)
3. Charles Leclerc (Monaco, Scuderia Ferrari)
4. Oscar Piastri (Australia, McLaren)
5. Carlos Sainz (Spain, Scuderia Ferrari)
6. Sergio Perez (Mexico, Red Bull Racing)
7. George Russell (Great Britain, Mercedes)
8. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes)
9. Pierre Gasly (France, Alpine F1 Team)
10. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Aston Martin)
11. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany, Haas F1 Team)
12. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Visa Cash App RB)
13. Lance Stroll (Canada, Aston Martin)
14. Alex Albon (Thailand, Williams Racing)
15. Esteban Ocon (France, Alpine F1 Team)
16. Logan Sargeant (United States, Williams Racing)
17. Yuki Tsunoda (Japan, Visa Cash App RB)
18. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark, Haas F1 Team)
19. Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Kick Sauber)
20. Zhou Guanyu (China, Kick Sauber)

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal