Ferrari race report: podium for Charles Leclerc, P5 for Carlos Sainz at Zandvoort | 2024 F1 Dutch GP. Ferrari race report in 2024 F1 Dutch GP.

Here is our full text transcript from the 15th round of the 2024 Formula 1 season, the Dutch Grand Prix:

If Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is to win his home Dutch Grand Prix for the fourth consecutive year, then he will have to get past title rival Lando Norris, with the McLaren driver storming to pole position with a stunning lap late in Saturday’s Qualifying session. Max Verstappen – 78 points clear of Lando Norris in the Drivers’ Championship – will start from P2, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez rounding out the top five.

Ferrari will start from P6 with Charles Leclerc and P10 with Carlos Sainz, as the SF-24 cars are a bit off the pace because of the relentless improvements of Mercedes and McLaren. If you stand still in this business, you go backwards quickly. But the aerodynamics are so powerful that if you make a tweak or two you are straight back in the game and the Maranello team is cofident it can recover the gap to its rivals in the next races.

There’s no chance of any rain this afternoon as the sun is shining but it’s still very windy. The gusty conditions have made things very difficult for the drivers as the cars slide going into, and in the middle of, a corner. It is only 19 degrees air temperature too, 30 on the track so the conditions are relatively cool and that will affect the tyres.

The cool conditions mean Pirelli think it will only be a one-stop race. However, don’t be surprised if those changes to two stops if one of the front-runners pit early and force other people to pit.

It’s medium tyres to begin with for all but four drivers. The entire top 10 are on the medium compound. Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda and Valtteri Bottas are on softs, while Kevin Magnussen has gone with hards from the pit lane. The future Ferrari driver would appear to be looking to gain some places early on, rather than trying to run long and wait for a Safety Car.

All 19 cars are under way cleanly – Kevin Magnussen is starting in the pit lane remember. These relatively cool conditions mean the next few minutes are pivotal to heat up the tyres, as that will make a big difference on the opening lap.

Lap 1/72: Max Verstappen takes the lead! It’s a poor launch from Lando Norris and he drops to second place. George Russell overtakes Oscar Piastri and is into third. WOW. The Dutch crowd are delighted about that! Both Ferrari cars gained a place at the start, with Charles Leclerc up to fifth place and Carlos Sainz in P9.

Lap 1/72: Charles Leclerc is right on Oscar Piastri’s tail as the cars go through Turn Five, while Lewis Hamilton is aiming to get past Daniel Ricciardo in 13th place. DRS is enabled after the first lap and crucially Lando Norris is still within one second of Max Verstappen. Very early stages of course.

Lap 4/72: Verstappen opens up a lead of 1.5 seconds, so Norris doesn’t have DRS. Meanwhile, Piastri is all over the back of Russell in the battle for third. Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc are right there too for good measure

Lap 6/72: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc moved past Red Bull’s Sergio Perez early on and up into fifth spot. Team-mate Carlos Sainz has entered the top 10. The Spaniard is currently ninth, between the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Lap 7/72: The gap at the front is now two seconds as Max Verstappen’s engineer Gianpiero Lambiase tells him to “Watch the rear sliding”. Norris is just saving his tyres at the moment.

Lap 8/72: George Russell is nearly three seconds behind Lando Norris but has Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez all within one second of each other. We call that a DRS train!

Lap 9/72: Carlos Sainz goes around the outside of Fernando Alonso at the first corner to take eighth place.

Lap 10/72: Lewis Hamilton is up to 11th as he overtakes Nico Hulkenberg down the inside at Turn One.

Lap 11/72: Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz goes wheel to wheel with Pierre Gasly’s Alpine and goes past the Frenchman on the inside to snatch seventh place. Further progression for the Spaniard, who began outside the top 10 after an early exit in Qualifying.

Lap 12/72: Oscar Piastri is asked about his thoughts on “Plan ” versus “Plan B” which likely is about when to make his pit stop. Piastri replies “Plan A”. Charles Leclerc is also on that plan, but the great thing is, we don’t know exactly what those plans are! Piastri and Leclerc are still stuck behind George Russell in the fight for third.

Lap 18/72: And Norris goes down the inside into Turn One to lead the Dutch Grand Prix. Verstappen tries to come back at him on the outside but can’t do anything about his rival. Great, clean racing between the pair.

Lap 19/72: Verstappen still has DRS on Norris and is hanging onto the back of the McLaren driver. Norris says his tyres “feel pretty reasonable”.

Lap 20/72: George Russell remains in third place, around 1.5 seconds clear of Oscar Piastri with Charles Leclerc around three quarters of a second further back. It seems a two-horse race for the win between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris but behind that it is all to play for.

Lap 22/72: Lando Norris is lapping seven tenths quicker than Max Verstappen on the last few laps and his lead is up to 2.9 seconds. The Dutchman still has five seconds to Russell in third, but at the moment, it’s all going Norris’ way.

Lap 24/72: Piastri drops back from Russell and is trying to fend off Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver tries to go around the outside of Russell at Turn One but can’t quite make it work.

Lap 25/72: Into the pits comes Charles Leclerc from fifth place and he comes back out in ninth. It’s a 2.4-second pit stop from Leclerc and he’s now on the hard tyres. Will Piastri or Russell respond?

Lap 26/72: Only a 3.4-second pit stop for George Russell as they struggle to get the front right tyre on. And it’s cost him as Charles Leclerc is ahead. The Monegasque driver overtakes Fernando Alonso too, so that puts the Ferrari driver in a net third place. Russell overtakes Alonso later in the lap, but will be frustrated to be behind Leclerc.

A 2.5 second stop for Max Verstappen and he re-enters the race in fifth spot, ahead of Pierre Gasly in the Alpine and behind Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari.

Lap 29/72: It’s only a 3.1-second pit stop for Norris but he’s still five seconds in front of Verstappen. Both drivers are on the hard tyres and are likely going all the way to the end of the race on this tyre.

Lap 30/72: A rare slow pit stop from Red Bull. It’s 4.4 seconds and Perez is down in ninth, behind Alonso. More importantly, he’s nine seconds adrift of Russell now.

Lap 30/72: Charles Leclerc, on the hard tyres, takes sixth spot from Pierre Gasly, while Lewis Hamilton then moves past Kevin Magnussen to rise to 11th.

Lap 31/72: Ferrari try to take advantage of Perez’s slow pit stop by pitting Carlos Sainz. However, the Spaniard is still behind him, with the pair battling for what will be sixth place after everyone has pitted.

Lap 32/72: After a raft of pit stops, Max Verstappen is back up into third in his Red Bull, six seconds behind Lando Norris in second with Oscar Piastri, who is yet to stop, leading the way in Zandvoort.

Lap 33/72: Finally Oscar Piastri pits. It’s a decent stop at 2.4 seconds. Piastri comes out in fifth place, ahead of Sergio Perez. He’s got George Russell four seconds up the road but Piastri had the advantage of much fresher rubber compared to everyone else – six laps newer than Russell in fact. Everyone has pitted in the Dutch Grand Prix now and everyone is also on the hard tyre.

Lap 35/72: Lewis Hamilton finds himself in eighth place now, around 3.5 seconds behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, and well clear of the Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen – who is yet to stop – and Nico Hulkenberg behind him. Hamilton had largely written the weekend off after a “shocking” day in Qualifying but could still bank a decent points haul this afternoon.

Lap 36/72: So, everyone has pitted once (apart from Kevin Magnussen in 10th) and we are not expecting another round of pit stops as tyre degradation is not high at Zandvoort. Norris leads Verstappen by a massive eight seconds, then comes Leclerc in third and Russell in fourth. Five seconds split them. Piastri is in fifth but has the newest tyres of everyone and is four seconds behind Piastri. Then comes Sergio Perez in sixth, with Carlos Sainz on his tail and Lewis Hamilton is eighth.

Lap 40/72: Oscar Piastri snatches fourth place from George Russell here in Zandvoort. The Australian has the fastest lap in this race, too, so is looking at an extra point as things stand. He will surely be targeting a podium as well, with Charles Leclerc next in his sights.

Lap 43/72: Carlos Sainz clocks the fastest lap in the race. The Ferrari driver is currently running in seventh place, sandwiched by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

Lap 44/72: Oscar Piastri is now just one second behind Charles Leclerc as he closes in on third place. At the front, Lando Norris is 11 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen and on course for victory at Zandvoort.

Lap 47/72: Carlos Sainz outbrakes Sergio Perez and finally claims sixth spot from the Red Bull driver after a couple of failed attempts. The Spaniard – who will join Williams from 2025 onwards – is three places behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who is running in third.

Lap 49/72: Lewis Hamilton stops for the second time, swapping his hard tyres for some soft ones, and re-enters in eighth place. The new wheels will aid his bid to clocks the fastest lap in this race, which remains set by Carlos Sainz in his Ferrari.

Lap 51/72: Lewis Hamilton does indeed set the fastest lap of the race but he faces quite the fight to better his current position of eighth as he is around 25 seconds behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

Lap 55/72: It looks like Russell was about to be overtaken by Sainz, so Mercedes have brought him in. He’s now on a set of soft tyres and comes out in seventh place with 18 seconds to make up on Perez.

Lap 60/72: Piastri is still one second behind Leclerc but it looks like his tyres are hurting and it is going to be hard to overtake now. Again, huge credit to Leclerc for hanging onto third place.

Lap 64/72: Fernando Alonso steams around the outside of Nico Hulkenberg at Turn One to take 10th place and the final point available.

Lap 64/72: George Russell has the soft tyres on so may be hopeful of reeling in sixth-placed Sergio Perez before the race is through, although the laps are running out in this grand prix. Russell’s advantage over team-mate Lewis Hamilton is less than two seconds so there could be a switch in order of the Mercedes pair soon enough. Hamilton is absolutely flying!

Lap 66/72: This is one of the most dominant performances of the season from Lando Norris. He’s at one with his McLaren car and in a league of his own this afternoon.

Lap 68/72: Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and 20th-placed Zhou Guanyu are the only drivers on the soft tyres late in this race, with each of the top six on the hards and a few down the field on the intermediates. Hamilton continues to close in on team-mate Russell, the gap 1.1 seconds now. Hamilton is set for an extra point for the fastest lap in Zandvoort.

Lap 69/72: Charles Leclerc is 1.2 seconds in front of Oscar Piastri in the battle for third. Piastri will surely try one last charge to get onto the back of Leclerc.

It’s a second career F1 win for Lando Norris and exactly what he needed in the first race back after the summer break. He also takes the fastest lap of the race on the last lap! Norris smashes it out of the park at Zandvoort and beats his championship rival Max Verstappen. Charles Leclerc holds off Oscar Piastri to take third place with a brilliant drive. Carlos Sainz is fifth from Sergio Perez, then come the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.