At the beginning of the 2024 F1 season, I think we were all expecting somewhat of a replay of 2023. With Verstappen starting the year off strong in Bahrain with pole position and a win, it certainly seemed like that. Let’s backtrack to our third race of the year, Australia. Verstappen’s RB20’s rear started to catch fire and smoke, meaning he was definitely out of the race. With something like that happening and determination as strong as his own, Verstappen was back in it again in Japan, winning by a 12-second margin over his teammate.
China had pretty much the same results, with Norris in P2, a 13-second gap to Verstappen in P1, and with Miami right around the corner, no one was surprised with Verstappen on pole once again, the two Ferrari’s right behind him, along with his own teammate down in P4.
The beginning of the race was one of the best I’ve seen this season: Perez locking up into Turn 1 and Piastri making a move, making it up to an amazing P2 right off the bat. We had a safety car come in by lap 29 due to Magnussen crashing into Sargeant at turn 3, causing the American to DNF. From this incident, Norris had jumped into P1 after pitting under said safety car, now set there for the remainder of however long the safety car would be out.
Piastri, on the other hand, was now down into P13 after a collision with Sainz; the pair seemed to have some kind of rivalry going on, with Sainz practically begging the Australian to give him the place back after a previous overtake before running into his front wing.
By the last few laps, it was clear Lando would be getting his first win, the one he’d worked so hard for over the years, coming so close in Sochi 2021. He took the victory, now in P4 for the drivers championship. This was the turning point for the season so far. Norris’ first win during another year of Red Bull Racing dominance? Especially with the nickname he was given (Lando No Wins), it didn’t seem right, though it was.
Normally, after a driver's first win, it would be some kind of one-off, maybe winning again the next year or later in the season, maybe even years later, or never. But what we saw with Norris for Imola was something different.
It was Verstappen who took pole once again, unsurprisingly, and Piastri managed to snag P2, with Norris in P3 behind him. However, Piastri received a penalty for an incident with Magnussen during the qualifying session, therefore getting bumped down to P5, and Norris is now taking his place in P2. Then it was lights out, and away we go, Verstappen keeping the lead with Norris behind him still, the gap increasing as it usually does with the three-time world champion at the front.
Towards the end of the race, we heard Verstappen say he was struggling with the car and it’s turning, his race engineer mentioning they had forgotten to charge the battery, now at 30% while Norris (still in P2) was at 60%, which is a significant difference, even with a minimum amount of laps remaining.
Norris began to gain on Verstappen, with the gap decreasing with each lap in Emilia-Romagna. It started to seem like Norris could take his second victory of the 2024 season; the gap is now under a second. On the 62/63 lap, Norris was just out of the DRS zone to have a chance at overtaking his opponent; however, we saw that time getting even closer as they sped through the circuit.
If Norris could just get enough speed and get close enough to Verstappen, he could take the win. His second win ever, twice in a row. It would be making history; the last double win apart from Verstappen was back in 2021, from 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Unfortunately, as close as he got, it wasn’t enough to take his second victory; there was only a 0.7-second gap between the two.
I think if we had one more lap of the track, Norris could’ve gotten that win, or maybe if we had two DRS zones instead of the one, he could’ve made a move on Verstappen to better his chances. But ‘if’ is only an ‘if’ in the F1 world; it doesn’t mean anything once that race is over and done.
That gap is the closest we’ve had all season; going from 12 seconds to 0.7 is massively insane, and I think it means even more when it’s Verstappen in the lead. If Norris can keep that up throughout the season, there could be a chance of him battling Verstappen for that P1 in the drivers championship, possibly putting an end to his consecutive 3-year world championship wins.
With the new confidence he has after his win and the near chance of winning in Imola, along with the new upgrades to his and Piastri’s McLaren’s, he could genuinely do it.
Best of luck to the McLaren’s, and I look forward to seeing how this season will play out.
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