© Vladimir Rys2024 Dutch Grand Prix - Race ReportMax takes second place at Zandvoort
A108thpodiumfinishinhis200thraceforMaxasChecograbseightpointsfromasixth-placefinish
Max Verstappen ended his 200th Grand Prix start by taking his 108th podium finish, with the championship leader settling for second place on home soil behind McLaren’s Lando Norris at the end of the Dutch Grand Prix, in which Checo Pérez took sixth place.
“We had a good start, so we tried everything we could today, but it's quite clear we were not quick enough. I just tried to do my own race, and that was second today,” said the champion afterwards.
At the race start, it looked like Max might be on course for a fourth Zandvoort win in a row as the Dutchman reacted quickest to the lights and powered past Norris and into the lead on the short run to Turn 1. Behind the top two, Mercedes’ George Russell beat Piastri to the punch to steal third place, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also gained a place when Checo, starting fifth, got hemmed in on the approach to Tarzan and dropped back to sixth.
Max’s next challenge was to break the DRS gap to Norris, and though the McLaren driver stayed within one second at the end of the first lap, Max found more pace on the following tour, and by the end of the lap he had eked out a 1.2s advantage over the Briton.
However, after dropping out of the dirty air coming off Max’s RB20, Norris began to close in, and on lap 15, the McLaren driver was suddenly back in DRS range. Max, meanwhile, was reporting that his tyres were “just numb; they don’t grip.”
The Dutchman’s woes promoted Norris to make his move. The McLaren driver attacked for the first time into Turn 1 on lap 17. Max managed to brush off the attempt, but as at the end of the lap, there was nothing the champion could do as Norris, with the aid of DRS, powered past to take the lead across the start/finish line.
Max takes second place at Zandvoort© Getty Images
Behind the leading pair, Russell was now over six seconds adrift in third, with fourth-placed Piastri coming under increasing pressure from Leclerc. With 21 laps gone, Checo was also struggling for grip, and he was now almost three seconds off the Ferrari driver.
Ahead, Max was finding his medium tyres increasingly unresponsive, and by lap 27, he was drifting away from Norris, who had built up a strong lead of 5.6s. That was enough for the Team to pull the trigger on the Dutchman’s first stop, and at the end of lap 27, the champion dived in for a set of hard tyres.
He rejoined in fifth place, behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. McLaren reacted immediately and Norris headed into the pit lane at the end of the following lap. And after his switch to the C1 compound, he emerged in P4, five seconds ahead of the Red Bull driver.
Checo was called in next time round, and when he rejoined it was in ninth place, behind Alonso, though with the aid of fresh rubber and pit stops ahead of him, he soon began to claw his way back up the order, rising back to P6 on lap 34.
Piastri was the last of the frontrunners to pit at the end of lap 33. And after fitting a set of C1 hard tyres, the Australian rejoined in fifth, just behind Russell. He soon dismissed the Mercedes driver, and though he closed in on Leclerc, he couldn’t find a way past the Ferrari man.
Checo was now coming under pressure from Sainz, and on lap 45, the Ferrari driver began to attack. The Minister was initially up to the task, placing his car well to frustrate the Spanish driver, but at the third time of asking, Sainz used DRS and a late-braking lunge to get past the Mexican into Tarzan on lap 48.
At the front, Norris was pulling away from Max, and with 20 laps left, the champion, still battling heavy tyre degradation, was 14.5 seconds off the lead. Behind him, Leclerc’s battle with Piastri was helping, however, and the Ferrari and McLaren drivers were now over six seconds off Max.
On lap 55, Mercedes pitted Russell for a set of used soft tyres and the Mercedes driver was charged with using the pace of the C3 tyres to haul his way back past Checo, who had been boosted to sixth again, and Sainz. Checo was alive to the potential threat, however, and over the closing stages of the race, consistent good pace kept the Mexican in the fight for eight valuable points.
Max, though, was now in management mode, and with Norris comfortably in the lead and any threat from behind nullified by tyre wear, the championship leader throttled back and settled for his 10th podium finish of the year. Second place at his home circuit means Max still controls the Driver’s title standings on 295 points, 70 ahead of Norris, who also took the point for fastest lap.
A 108th podium finish in his 200th race for Max© Getty Images
Leclerc kept Piastri at bay to take his seventh podium finish of 2024. Sainz backed up the second Red Bull, and Checo held firm in sixth to take the team’s overall points tally to 434, 30 clear of McLaren, with Ferrari a further 34 points back in third. Behind Checo, Russell led home teammate Hamilton, Pierre Gasly secured ninth for Alpine, and the final point went to Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
