DUTCH GRAND PRIX 2024: Review

 

✦  Free Practices:
  ✮ FP1:

• The weather in Zandvoort is beautiful, rain and very strong wind
• Charles Leclerc has taken a new power unit for the Dutch Grand Prix. This is his fourth and final ICE, TC, and MGU-K for the season.
• Gasly and Magnussen the first drivers to go on track even though the weather was not favorable
• Magnussen returns to the pits, Hulk and Shwartzman go out on track Hulk goes off track, but it's all good
• Gasly to his engineer saying the track is very bad
• The forgotten ones during the season, wet tires are being used today
• Sainz went to the track just to wet the car and returns to the garage
• Now everyone in the garage
• Sargeant, Leclerc and Albon went to get the car wet, but one lap and Logan & Alex back in the garage
• Lec the first driver to set a time Hulk went out on track again and got out of the track again
• The weather is improving and drivers are starting to be able to switch from wet to intermediate tyres
• Gasly, Perez and Sainz went off track.
• I understand you Max, i also wanted to take a nap
• Drivers starting to switch to slick tires

         ➤ PENALTY:
➺ Logan Sargeant: Pit lane speeding – 60.5 km/h.
     Car 2 exceeded the pit lane speed limit which is set at 60 km/h for this event by 0.5 km/h
     Williams was fined €100

  ✮ FP2:

• We are seeing a lot of drivers went off track, and now Verstappen has lost the rear
• Red flag - Hulk smashed
• Sainz is out of this session due to a gearbox problem
• Stoll's car had a problem, when he was coming back to the track, almost accident between stroll and Albon on the fast line
• F1 released a replay and had unsafe release with Zhou and Ricciardo, investigations just after the end of the session
• Small moment between Perez and Leclerc

         ➤ PENALTY:
➺ Alex Albon: unsafe release
     Williams is fined €5,000
        
➺ Zhou Guanyu: unsafe release
     Sauber was fined €5,000


  ✮ FP3:

• It's raining
• Kmag, Hulk & Bottas were the first to test the track, but now they're back in the garage
• On track we have Pia, Sainz, Tsu, Alo and Sto
• Hulk crashed again, he is complaining about a problem with the car, which was the same thing that happened yesterday, when he touches the brakes the tire locks up Hulk to be investigated after 'cause returning unsafely
• Red flag:
• He went with the two tires on the right side on the grass, spun and hit the wall on the left side
• The fire, we will have to wait for some statement
• Sargeant's car on fire, he is now safe and out of the car
• It's a good thing that cars today are safer for drivers
• James Vowels: "It looks pretty serious. It could result in a chassis change."
• "With extensive impact and fire damage, Sargeant looks unlikely to take part in qualifying. He visited the medical centre, though was cleared of injury." - @Motorsport
• Both Williams cars were with the first big updates of the season
• Cars queuing up so they might be released at 12:28 local time if they are released it should only be for one lap
• With two minutes to go cars released onto the track
• We returned later with Max's penalties, he overtook at the pitlane exit and crossed the white line and received a black and white flag.
• It didn’t have it

✦  Qualifying:
  ✮ Q1:

• Quali will be in clear weather
• Williams statement & the Williams pit, Sargeant's side, is currently closed.
• Hamilton, Perez impeding at Turn 9 noted, likely penalty after session
• Hamilton’s penalty: drop 3 positions on the starting grid
• Russell complaining about lack of grip
• Out:
• P16 - Ricciardo
• P17 - Ocon
• P18 - Bottas
• P19 - Zhou
• P20 - Sargeant (didn’t participated, but rule 107%)

  ✮ Q2:

• Sargeant’s car updates
• Rain clouds approaching the circuit - 5 minutes to go
• Out
• P11 - Sainz
• P12 - Hamilton*
• P13 - Tsunoda
• P14 - Hulkenberg
• P15 - Magnussen**

         ➤ PENALTY:
➺ * Hamilton drop 3 position for tomorrow because of impeding Perez during qualifying
➺ ** All Power Unit elements were replaced without the approval of the FIA Technical Delegate during Parc Ferme.

  ✮ Q3 - Top 10:

• P1 - Norris
• P2 - Verstappen
• P3 - Piastri
• P4 - Russell
• P5 - Perez
• P6 - Leclerc
• P7 - Alonso
• P8 - Albon*
• P9 - Gasly
• P10 - Stroll

➺ *: Because of the floor body found to lie outside the regulatory volume, the car 23 (Alex Albon) is disqualified, the Williams driver will start the Dutch GP from the rear of the field

  ✮ Starting grid:
Photo by The FIA via Fia. com

✦  Race:

• Clear weather for Zandvoort today, may the drivers have lots of luck, no one gets hurt and may they put on a show for us
• Tsu, Ham and Val soft, Mag hard, all the other drivers on the medium tyre
• Formation lap starting
• Max is constantly complaining about the car, gap to Lando +4.7s
• Gap between Pia and Nor +6.1s
• Pierre unsafe release incident noted, probably the team would be a fine, the FIA forgot even to made the documentation
• Stroll speeding on the pit lane, the limit is 60km/h, he was 65.7km/h as penalty he recieved+5s
• Beautiful overtake Pia over Rus
• Lando won with a gap of 22.9s

✦  My opinion:
I was expecting nothing from this race, when I saw that the weather was clean, but it delivered! But not exactly as we wanted, we had some some in track, but the real show was in the strategies, duration of pit stop and undercut.

I think the sweet part of this race it’s a driver that don’t won a lot, and he got he first Hat Trick. Hat Trick is three successive race wins, winning the same event three times in a row, or securing pole position, fastest lap and race victory in one event, in this case the second option.

We know Lando isn’t the best in starting, but Oscar also didn’t start well, so may me question if this time wasn’t something in the car, maybe the clutch, we’ll have to see on the next races. We have to talk about also McLaren totally forgot how to be a winner team, and the way they argued how to proceed with the race. Strategy is not McLaren's strong point in any category they participate in, believe me.

Does Lando have a chance to win the tittle? If you asked me before the race I would say something different, but after seeing how it the race ended, with a gap of 22.9s between Norris and Verstappen, he really has chances to do it. And we don’t even have to talk about the Constructor Championship.

Let’s say someone who had a great started was Gasly who grain 2 positions in the first lap. He made an amazing race considering the car he has. He started and finished in P9, he ended in front of both Aston Martins and VCARBs. I think he new boss is proud

To finish we need to talk about the red boys, Carlos made a good recovering race, but it didn`t have that much memorable moments, he started as P10 and finished P5, unfortunately he didn’t seem happy after the race. Now Leclerc, he started in P6, in the first lap he gained one position, Ferrari didn’t messed up his strategy, neither his pitstop, he was able to hold Piastri finished as P3. Now it’s all abou if Ferrari can repeat this next week at home, or go even better

We had some overtakes yes, one example was the way Piastri overtook Russell, it was beautiful! But Zandvoort it’s not know for be a easy place to overtake, in this case is like Monaco. It’s an amazing track, and it’s beautiful to watch, but as I said the real show was made by the strategies, duration of pit stop and undercut.

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So, see you soon!
Fondly, Nina