F1: Red Bull boss Christian Horner was quick to take down questions around recent form and concerns for Red Bull.
Max Verstappen opened the campaign in Bahrain with a 22.457-second victory, promising more of the same demoralising domination from previous years.
ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS - AUGUST 25: Race winner Lando Norris of Great Britain and McLaren and third placed Charles Leclerc of Monaco and Ferrari celebrate in parc ferme after the F1 Grand Prix of Netherlands at Circuit Zandvoort on August 25, 2024 in Zandvoort, Netherlands. *** BESTPIX ***They might not admit it, but there would have been a large collective sigh in the McLaren garage as the lights went out.
A win of this magnitude puts to bed any thought that Norris’s status as McLaren’s number one could be under immediate threat. It set the tone of the race. Bar a brief time before his sole pit stop, his entire afternoon was spent behind cars that were difficult to pass, restricting his speed and ballooning the gap to his teammate.
“I had a decent tyre delta to Russell and could get past him pretty quickly, but to try and get to Leclerc I had to use the tyres pretty hard, and by the time I got there, I just didn’t have enough left. This weekend Pérez was in acceptable — just — form on Sunday and McLaren still managed to take a big bite out of the margin, gaining 12 points on RBR.
“Their car was in a different league today,” Horner, almost lost for words, told Sky Sports. “We did everything we could. Max converted P2 into the lead, but you could see their pace was in a different league.Not since 2020 has the team gone five rounds without victory, and you have to go back a similarly long time to find a race in which the team was defeated by such a large margin in normal race circumstances.
Russell, however, had lost three places on his starting position and four places from where he’d been running in the first stint. “I don’t really understand what’s happened, in all honestly,” Russell admitted to Sky Sports. “It just felt like I had no grip. I was sliding around like I was on ice.But the Briton was confident Zandvoort wouldn’t be the start of a trend, the racing having come off the back of a weekend of mixed weather and high winds that made set-up difficult for all teams.
It took a good start, a well-judged undercut strategy and some astute pace management to get it done, but Leclerc strung together his race exceptionally, with Carlos Sainz backing him up with a 10th-to-fifth drive.
Statement Drive Emphatic Flourish North America Grid Penalty Sole Pit Stop George Russell Joe Portlock Western Asia Tyre Delta Jack Doohan Form Guide Team Points Two-Stop Strategies Strategy Team Lando Norris Grand Prix Europe Home-Win Record Constructors Championship Advantage STATEMENT VICTORY Defensive Driving Disappointing Result Bahrain Abu Dhabi Western Europe Title Truth Qualifying Session Canada Northern America Christian Horner Astute Pace Management Sergio Pérez Race Circumstances TITLE RACE Pit Stop Tyre Advantage Tyre Life Qualifying Results Sky Sports Shrinking Constructors Championship Grands Prix BULL RACING LOSES Max Verstappen Netherlands Bonus Point Dominant Win America Laps Right Getty Images Inc. Charles Leclerc Carlos Sainz Extreme Track Mitigating Circumstances Talking Points One-Two Finish Quebec Well-Judged Undercut Strategy Parc Ferme Title Statement Zak Brown Asia Race Winner Pole Quirk Montreal
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