Hallo, MiniFans! We’re finally back from the summer break and it’s as if nothing has changed. The uncertainty about the results of any given weekend gets added up to free practice sessions that either didn’t have the best conditions or were straight up red flagged for a long while, making it so that it’s pretty unclear as to who will rule when the clock hits zero.
One of the repeating aspects in F1 is that in a normal weekend, it’s those who are fighting not to get dropped in the first instance are the ones who come out as soon as the time starts ticking down for Q1. However, it didn’t take long for the rest of the grid to join them, pushing them down to their usual hunting grounds. Hamilton settled on top early on, very closely followed by both McLarens, whom Verstappen soon split. Ferrari, who hadn’t exactly kept up before the summer break, seemed to be following in the same line, needing to go down to the line with fresh sets of softs to try and not get knocked out.
The second and last stint saw everyone with softs on, many of them the same set that they’d been using, Some, like Verstappen, made sense, as his lap was goon enough already, but others were more surprising, such as Russell, who wasn’t feeling too comfortable in the cockpit due to the car not responding as he expected. The track improvement as the rubber was laid down after a wet morning was clear as day, with Sainz jumping from the elimination to the top of the timing tower, a position later usurped by both Russell and Pérez, as the three of them escaped from an undesired fate when driving for a top team. The eliminated drivers in Q1 were Ricciardo (P16), Ocon (P17), Bottas (P18), Zhou (P19) and Sargeant (P20, no time set due to crashing in FP3 and his car not being rebuilt in time).
Q2 was kickstarted by both Ferrari drivers, with Leclerc leading from Sainz before they were joined by the rest of the grid and Piastri obliterated the best recorded time of the weekend. He didn’t manage to hold on too long to it, as Norris barely edged him out. Verstappen could only be third, three tenths away from the McLarens, while Russell didn’t want to miss out and pushed him off into fourth, only a handful of hundredths away from the papaya cars.
The sun disappeared halfway through this session and rain started to hound the thoughts of engineers and drivers alike, as it could be seen in the distance. The top four remained in their garages as everyone else filed out to try and improve their times, which didn’t ensure a place in Q3, as proven by drivers like Sainz and Hamilton, who saw themselves pushed off by the likes of Stroll, who scored a magnificent lap, and Leclerc, who threw his own teammate out. The eliminated drivers in Q2 were Sainz (P11), Hamilton (P12), Tsunoda (P13), Hulkenberg (P14) and Magnussen (P15).
The first ones out on Q3 were those with multiple sets of fresh softs, including a greedy Verstappen that had three, and a couple odd-one-outs with a used set. The first round repeated what we’d already seen, with Norris and Piastri leading and Verstappen close by, while Russell lost a couple more tenths and couldn’t quite catch up to the top three. Once these went into the pitlane for a bit of a rest, the Aston Martins took their turn, whereas both Pérez and Albon left it until the very end, when everyone else went back onto the track. Verstappen gritted his teeth and gave his all, managing to push Piastri out of the front row, but was still three and a half tenths slower than Norris, who scored a new pole position.
Despite not having the best car anymore, it was clear that Verstappen wasn’t about to give up in his home GP. The McLaren drivers established themselves as the favourites for the weekend since the very beginning of the session, but they couldn’t manage to lock out the front row, as Piastri didn’t manage to lower his previous time enough to do a 1-2 that would help Norris breathe on Sunday’s race start. Now, the British driver will need to fend off the local hero with a historically negative record in his starts from pole position.
MiniDrivers – F1
2024 Dutch GP
Qualifying
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