British Formula One driver George Russell placed seventh in a windy 2024 Dutch Grand Prix by the seaside. He’d previously placed P17 in Zandvoort in 2023, and P2 in 2022.

Wet and windy FP1

George began the weekend’s first practice session on full Wet tyres and continued to gather information as the track dried up.

Towards the end of the session, the track had cleared enough for George to switch to Softs.

With just over five minutes to go in FP1, George initially topped the timesheet with a time of 1:13.766, having set the fastest time in the second and third sectors. Following this, he finished FP1 in fifth.

WATCH: 2024 DUTCH FP1 HIGHLIGHTS

Vital dry running in FP2

Later in the day, George began the weekend’s second Free Practice on Mediums. The track was completely dry, allowing George and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team to collect some valuable dry-running data. As dry conditions were forecast for Sunday’s race, gathering data in Friday’s dry conditions was pivotal.

However, conditions remained tricky, with strong wind affecting the session.

A Red Flag briefly interrupted the session. When FP2 got back underway, George resumed on Softs.

Towards the end of the session, George and the team focused on longer runs to prepare for the race.

George set the fastest lap of FP2, with a time of 1:10.702.

WATCH: 2024 DUTCH FP2 HIGHLIGHTS

Limited running in FP3

Rain affected Saturday’s practice, resulting in George beginning FP3 on Intermediate tyres.

George had a slight moment into Turn One, resulting in a Yellow Flag, but he was able to continue.

With 45 minutes to go, a Red Flag resulted in limited running for all drivers. The session resumed with only two minutes to go, so George came back out for some last-minute data collection on Intermediates.

He finished the weekend’s final Free Practice in P13.

WATCH: 2024 DUTCH FP3 HIGHLIGHTS

Second row start

Track conditions were dry throughout Qualifying, allowing George to run Soft tyres throughout the session.

After his first run of Q1, George was P10, with the track ramping up. He came back out onto the track on a new set of Softs and set the fastest time, making it safely through to Q2.

George was P3 following the first runs of Q2, which is where he finished the second segment.

George had two sets of fresh Softs available for Q3. He began his first lap with roughly eight minutes left on the clock and set a solid time.

Improving on his time on his final lap, George crossed the line to claim P4.

WATCH: 2024 DUTCH QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS

Points scored in Zandvoort

After a weekend of mixed conditions, Sunday’s Grand Prix was dry throughout but still had a strong wind.

George started from the second row of the grid on Medium tyres. After a good getaway, George passed Oscar Piastri into the first corner and moved up into the podium positions.

He held onto P3 for much of the Grand Prix’s early stages and was able to get out of Piastri’s DRS.  

At the end of Lap 25, George pitted from P3 for Hard tyres. Following a 3.4 second stop and a successful undercut by Charles Leclerc, George rejoined in ninth.

After drivers around him pitted, George was up to P4, with Piastri gaining on him and getting into DRS range.

On Lap 40, George was passed by Piastri, with Carlos Sainz also beginning to close the gap behind.

At the end of Lap 54, George pitted from fifth for Softs. He rejoined the track in P7 and began to chase the drivers ahead.

However, in the end, George finished the race in seventh and claimed six points.

The 2024 F1 season will resume on 30 August - 1 September for the Italian Grand Prix.

WATCH: 2024 DUTCH GRAND PRIX HIGHLIGHTS

George Russell, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team driver:

Today’s race was an odd one. We didn’t have the pace and that was the case on all three tyre compounds. It felt that I was sliding around quite a lot, suffering from high degradation, and slowly went backwards. We will have to understand why that was as we were relatively quick on Saturday. Performance does swing circuit to circuit, but we have been up near the front in the past six races. I am therefore confident that this is an outlier.

We will get to work immediately to understand why we were slower than our competitors today. We have another race next weekend in Monza and we will aim to put in a much better showing there.