The Dutch Grand Prix saw some fantastic action at the front, but there were also impressive performances further back, including a spectacular drive from Fernando Alonso to P9 and two precious points for Aston Martin.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard was beaten only by the Audi<\/a> of Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> in the midfield battle. However, while progress has been made of late it would be premature to suggest that Aston Martin<\/a>‘s AMR26 was the sixth fastest car on the Zandvoort grid.<\/p>\n It was a result hewn from perfect execution by team and driver on a day when others with quicker cars made mistakes, or didn\u2019t get it quite right. However, that shouldn\u2019t detract from a great performance \u2013 and one that suggests signs of genuine promise after the team\u2019s difficult start to 2026.<\/p>\n In Budapest, the long-awaited aero update package had an immediate impact with the team jumping ahead of Cadillac<\/a>, Haas<\/a> and Williams<\/a>. Zandvoort saw another step on the aero side with new parts, but of greater significance was the debut of Honda\u2019s latest power unit. As such the weekend was a big test, with the Sprint schedule making it that much harder to optimise everything.<\/p>\n That was reflected in a low-key start to the weekend. Sprint Qualifying didn\u2019t go smoothly, with Lance Stroll<\/a> in P17 and Alonso<\/a> in P22 after not getting a proper lap in.<\/p>\n With little to lose the former World Champion made set-up changes for the Sprint and thus started from the pit lane. Using it as a test session, he finished P18, behind his team mate. “We used to be 4.5 seconds average on the gap to the leader,\u201d he said after the session. \u201cSo we took three seconds in two races. This is amazing. Everything is working as expected, but this is a tough sport.\u201d<\/p>\n The AMR26 has generally been kind on its tyres, with the drivers often running long opening stints. That characteristic appears to have been retained with the updated and quicker car, and it was to prove crucial to Alonso\u2019s race.<\/p>\n As in Hungary, softs were once again the choice on the grid in Zandvoort, and after taking a fresh set for the restart Alonso stayed out as others stopped, gradually moving up the order while having to deal with radio issues that compromised his contact with the pit wall.<\/p>\n When he finally came in on Lap 34 he had made it to P8, behind only the drivers from the top four teams.<\/p>\n The stop initially dropped him back to P13, but crucially he had opened the window to a de facto one-stopper \u2013 something that no one else was able to achieve on Sunday. A marathon 37-lap stint to the flag on hards saw him rise to P9 as those ahead pitted.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was not the plan,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI think the plan was two stops and to go more conventional. But yeah, we need to sometimes deviate a little bit from what is the normal thing.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we are in traffic, we cannot use our potential. We are faster in the corners than the people in front of us, we are slower on the straights, and we are stuck behind. So as soon as we have free track in front of us, we try to use it, even if it’s not the optimal performance, and the optimal strategy. And it\u2019s what we did today.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI think we scored one point in Monaco with nine DNFs, and today we scored two points, with I think Max DNF. So I think it was well-deserved. Probably in Budapest we could have done a little bit better. And yeah, it will depend circuit-by-circuit, depending how many straights we have.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I don’t expect in Monza to be competitive, but maybe in some other circuits we have another chance to be in the points.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s clear that the AMR26 is getting better. However Alonso\u2019s comments on straight-line performance told their own story, and Honda obviously need more time to get the best out of the updated power unit.<\/p>\n \u201cI think another step forward, especially on the chassis side,\u201d Alonso said. \u201cWe brought four or five components here. Also, the Budapest package was understood in the break, and with all the data available after the race, we fine-tuned a little bit the setup around that new spec, plus the new parts. I think now we are optimising the chassis side, and we are able to extract the maximum.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the engine, it’s more difficult. I don’t think we can be black and white if we have more power or not. From the driver side of things, you change circuit, one month after the other race \u2013 so, difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cOn drivability, it has been a difficult weekend. We’re struggling with the downshift again, and we’re struggling with the engine braking corner-to-corner. So it was a challenging weekend in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n The downside for Aston Martin was another retirement from Stroll after damage led to handling issues that obliged the Canadian to stop.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, it was an encouraging weekend overall for the Silverstone team, as Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack acknowledged.<\/p>\n \u201cWe get to know this package more and more,\u201d he noted after the race. \u201cI think we said with a large package that we introduced in Budapest, we’ll take some sessions to learn how to deal with it, and to learn how to set it up.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the same goes actually also for the introduction of the power unit \u2013 now we need to learn how to how to use it. We need to learn how to optimise it, and I think that is it’s going to take us a couple of events. But it was a good step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Significantly, both drivers were pleased with a much-improved chassis balance over the weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cIt goes along with what I just said in terms of trying to understand the package,\u201d said Krack. \u201cAnd the more sessions we get, the more we will get it under control. But there are sessions where you will have a bit more difficulties, some others where it will be easier, and I think we had quite a good configuration this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dutch Grand Prix saw some fantastic action at the front, but there were also impressive performances further…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-867902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIn Qualifying the pair earned P18 and P19, with Alonso ahead. It might not have matched the Budapest Q2 performance, but it was all very close \u2013 and Alonso was unperturbed by the actual positions.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIf you have changes at this large scale, with the intensity of the sessions, it’s always difficult to get the maximum out of it all the time.<\/p>\n