ANALYSIS: Mercedes forced into two-stop strategy due to high tyre wear

Despite having displayed an encouraging tyre management in recent round, Mercedes has suffered from high tyre degradation and overheating of the rear tyres. F1Technical's lead journalist Balazs Szabo delivers his strategy analysis.

Having secured the pole position on Saturday, McLaren's Lando Norris took maximum points in the Dutch Grand Prix by taking the race win as well as setting the race fastest lap on the very last lap.

The brilliant performance saw the Briton become the 48th driver to do the hat trick in a Grand Prix. With a great start from second, Max Verstappen launched himself into the lead, but he was unable to keep Norris behind, and eventually finished the race second some 23 seconds behind his British rival. Charles Leclerc delivered an eye-catching performance on a weekend when Ferrari looked seriously off the pace to finish third, thus securing Ferrari’s twelfth podium finish of the season.

Commenting on the Dutch Grand Prix, Pirelli's Motorsport Director Mario Isola said that the field was separated into three groups during the 72-lap race.

“A very intense race, where we witnessed one driver and one team – Lando Norris and McLaren – demonstrate clear superiority over his rivals and team-mate.

"Behind him, there was a great battle within the two groups of teams which have emerged this season: the leading group, made up of McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes and the rest of the field, all fighting for the remaining points.

Pirelli had expected teams and drivers to pick the soft compound for the start of the race. However, 16 drivers chose to line up on the grid on the Medium, while three – Hamilton, Tsunoda and Bottas – opted for the Soft and Magnussen started from pit lane on the Hard.

The Milan-based tyre supplier was unsure about the best strategy, as both the one- and the two-stop alternatives were considered as a viable approach to the 72-lap Dutch Grand Prix. It turned out that Pirelli has made the correct evaluation of the limited data it had acquired over the course of the opening two rain-interrupted sessions.

Three quarters of the drivers ran a one-stop race, fitting the Hard as their second set (Magnussen switched to the Medium).

Interestingly, the Mercedes drivers made two stops. Starting from P4 on the grid, George Russell elected to use the medium compound on his opening stint, making his first tyre change on Lap 25, taking on the white-walled hards.

Having been overtaking by Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri and having been chased by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, Mercedes elected to call the Briton in for a second change, this time switching to the red-walled softs.

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton started the race from P14 after balance issues in qualifying and a post-qualifying grid-drop penalty for impeding Red Bull's Sergio Perez. The Briton opted for the soft compound for the start, before switching to the hard and ending the race on another set of the red-walled compound.

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed that the Brackley-based outfit was surprised by the high tyre degradation.

"We were not generating good grip and, consequently, were sliding around on the tyre. That led to higher degradation than our competitors and forced us into a two-stop race.

"We were on the back foot today, but we will be working hard to ensure that isn't the case next weekend in Monza," said the Briton.

There were four other drivers to complete the Zandvoort race distance with two stops. Visa Cash RB's Yuki Tsunoda and the Kick Sauber pair of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu used all three available compounds while Williams racer Alexander Albon used two sets of C2 split by one stint on the Hard.

As for the compounds, F1’s official tyre suppliers have chosen the C1, C2 and C3 compounds for the tight, twisty 4.259-kilometre venue, which is made up of 10 right-hand corners and four left-hand turns.

Hulkenberg produced the longest stint of the race, doing 57 laps on the Hard. The prize on the Medium goes to Piastri (33 laps), while Hamilton did 24 on the Soft.

Speaking of the strategies, Isola noted: “In terms of strategy, we had our predictions going into the race confirmed, namely that the one-stop was the quickest option.

"From the small amount of data acquired during free practice and based on earlier simulations, we expected to see more cars run the Soft to benefit from its performance advantage over the Medium, but probably, the majority of teams decided to tackle the first stint more cautiously given there was not much information available to them.

"In fact, the Soft proved to be up to the task, as was evident with Hamilton, as he was the driver who made up the most places from his grid position, starting on the C3 and then opting to use it again for his third stint," Isola concluded.