Winner: Lando Norris

Let’s start with the obvious candidate and the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix winner - Lando Norris.

It was an outstanding weekend performance from the British driver. On Saturday he amazingly stole a pole position from Max Verstappen with a gap over 3 tenths. Then on Sunday, he showed even more of his magic. Despite a bad start, when he fell behind Max Verstappen, he managed to fight back, took back the lead on lap 18, and won the race 22 seconds ahead of the Dutchman.

Norris and McLaren once again proved that together they are a championship-winning material and that Red Bull is now the one, who has to improve their car, otherwise, they might lose the battle for the Constructor’s but possibly even for the Driver’s Championship trophy.

Loser: Red Bull

As Helmut Marko stated earlier this year: “The RB20 has become a b*tch that only Max (Verstappen) can tame." However, this weekend not even Verstappen was able to handle Red Bull’s car. They struggled over the whole weekend with lack of grip and understeer. Even though the Dutchman managed to finish second in his home race, Red Bull is not happy with their current position.

It was just their second podium in five races, and although Sergio Perez finally managed to finish within the top-six drivers, which was the first time for him since Miami nine races ago, he still ended up behind both McLarens and Ferraris, which doesn’t help Red Bull at all in the fight for the Constructor’s Championship.

In the past four races, Red Bull collected only 79 points, which is the same as Ferrari, but one point less than Mercedes and, crucial 57 points less than McLaren. The pressure is now truly on the Austrian team for the first time since 2021.

Winner: Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc surprised everyone with his amazing drive on Sunday, after a difficult qualifying on Saturday, where his Ferrari completely lacked pace and he ended up 9 tenths off pole. His teammate Carlos Sainz didn’t even manage to get to Q3.

However, Saturday was different for the Monagasque as he pulled an amazing drive. Thanks to a good undercut strategy from Ferrari, he managed to hold P3 and carry that totally unexpected trophy home with him.

Loser: Logan Sargeant

It was a weekend to forget for Logan Sargeant. The American driver had a huge accident in the third free practice on Saturday, after he made a mistake in Turn 4 and crashed into the barriers at the 200 km/h. He jumped out completely uninjured but the car then caught on fire and was almost completely destroyed.

Despite the effort of all Williams’s mechanics he wasn’t able to compete in qualifying the same days. FIA then gave him a green light for the race on Sunday, even with no time set on Saturday, but that wasn’t much better as he finished very far from points in P16.

On top of everything, Williams is now seriously considering to replace him for the rest of the season, starting this week in Monza.

Winner: Pierre Gasly

While Esteban Ocon struggled, his teammate Pierre Gasly managed to deliver 2 valuable points for Alpine.

Gasly’s strong result was set up by an excellent qualifying session, where he secured P10 on the grid, marking his third Q3 appearance of the season. He later moved to starting P9, after Albon’s post-quali disqualification.

The Frenchman made some impressive overtakes during the race and even managed to hold onto some top drivers, like Sainz or Hamilton, for a long time. Despite a slower pitstop, he finished in the same position he started, equalling Alpine’s best race result this season.

Loser: Mercedes

It was a difficult comeback in Zandvoort for Mercedes after their consistently amazing performance before the summer break as they didn’t bring any new upgrades to the Netherlands.

Everything went wrong on Saturday after Lewis Hamilton failed to make Q3 and ended up starting P14 after a penalty for impending Sergio Perez.

George Russell, after starting from P4, managed to score only P7 in the race on Sunday after a bad call for soft tyres 20 laps till the end. Hamilton made up some places and finished right behind him in P8, delivering at least some but definitely not enough points for Mercedes. They will try to bource back in Monza this week, where their young and promising talent Andrea Kimi Antonelli, will make his F1 debut in FP1.