2024 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix Highlights

Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen was unable to score a home victory in the 2024 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, but the defending Formula One world champion was able to celebrate a return to the podium with second behind inner Land Norris of McLaren at Zandvoort following a two-race absence from the rostrum.

After qualifying second behind Norris during a blustery qualifying session on Saturday, Verstappen made a brilliant start to pass Norris. He held the British driver off for 18 laps but had to settle for second in his 200th Grand Prix start.

Sergio Pérez, meanwhile, scored his best result since the Miami Grand Prix in May with sixth place. The Mexican driver started the race from fifth on the grid and fought hard to hold sixth to the finish line.

Despite Norris’s win, Verstappen remains at the top of the Drivers’ Standings, leaving Zandvoort now holding a 70-point advantage over Norris, with nine Grand Prix remaining in the 2024 season. Things are tighter in the Constructors’ Standings, where Oracle Red Bull Racing are just 30 points ahead of McLaren Mercedes.

Max Verstappen, Driver, Red Bull Racing

Today, the start was good, and we got a lead in front, which was a positive start. However, once I was overtaken, it became about managing my own race, as I knew I didn’t have the pace to catch Lando. The car balance has been challenging this weekend; we just didn’t have the pace and struggled with our tyres. I tried my best, but it just didn’t work today, and we had quite a big gap. We didn’t have our best weekend, and we will go back and analyse what we can do better. It’s my 200th race, and driving in front of the crowd at home was nice. Those races have gone by quickly, and when I grew up, I thought about this; I imagine I will look back and be proud of this moment. It was great to be here in my home Grand Prix and in front of fans, but it is a shame as you always want to win for them.

Sergio Pérez, Driver, Red Bull Racing:

I had a great start but, unfortunately, was squeezed into turn one and then lost a position to Charles Leclerc. In the beginning, things looked really good, but we didn’t have the pace to keep up as the other cars started pulling ahead. We struggled with the grip on the hard tyre and balance all race. We have a lot of work to do, but it has been a good weekend in terms of understanding the car issues, and we can go forward with taking this as the base and developing from here. I also feel like this is a very extreme scenario with the tailwind corners, and we struggled more than other teams. Monza will be a different kind of track, and we hope to be more positive. We will keep our heads down and be fully focused on getting to the bottom of our issues. We’ve got a lot of work to do to understand where the pace has gone, especially in the race, so hopefully, we can get back up to speed in Monza next week.

CHRISTIAN HORNER, CEO and Team Principal

Congratulations to McLaren and Lando; their car was in a different league today. We did everything we could, and Max converted P2 into a lead at the start, but you could see he couldn’t compete with Lando’s pace. In hindsight, the gamble we made with more downforce, following very little Friday running, perhaps wasn’t the best route. We need to understand where the deficit is to McLaren and how we can improve the performance of our car. We have some ideas and will work hard to develop them. We will have to respond; I’m confident we have the strength and depth to do that.

“Max has a 70-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship, but we have to keep scoring as a team and on the days we can’t win, you have to finish second. Checo had a solid drive, too, and looking at his pace, he looked strong, particularly in the second half of the race, which is positive. So, we have plenty of work to do, but we have learnt a lot of lessons this weekend that can be very valuable. We have tried some things on the car that we have good data from to assess. We must ensure we use that; it is time to digest what happened here and try to bounce back in Monza.

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