Max Verstappen took full advantage of Lando Norris’s poor start record this season to set up a chase for McLaren at Zandvoort, where he started the Dutch Grand Prix on pole.
Lando Norris ended Max Verstappen’s run of Zandvoort victories by putting an end to another appalling race start.
With an incredible drive under the sunny seaside conditions, British driver Landon Norris won the Dutch Grand Prix, marking just his second Formula 1 victory ever. The only mark on his record was yet another appalling start that let the Red Bull racer to elicit a cheer from the home crowd.
Verstappen was unable to keep up with him as he quickly used his strength to gain the lead and cruised to the checkered flag for more than 50 laps on a Sunday afternoon. Oscar Piastri was making a strong push for third place from Charles Leclerc, but he was unable to prevent Ferrari from finishing on the podium.
In the end, Carlos Sainz improved to fifth place to cap off a great performance for the Scuderia. With George Russell falling to seventh after Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton only managing to climb to eighth after starting in the bottom half, Mercedes, on the other hand, were well off the pace.
Norris stated following Saturday’s qualifying that he didn’t want to add to the negative press surrounding his dismal starting performance. However, he did just that on Sunday afternoon when the lights went out, launching another slowly, which let Verstappen surge ahead of him before they even reached the first corner.
For the first ten laps, the Dutchman kept Norris at a distance, going more than a second ahead of the Briton to take away DRS as an option. However, that was also the moment when McLaren began to capitalize on their apparent advantage over Red Bull in terms of tire degradation.
After getting back within DRS range, he slammed off the final corner’s banked turn on lap 18 and unfurled his rear wing to take the lead once more. He then inquired over the radio, “What’s the plan from here?” before reporting that his tires were still feeling good. He was then instructed to simply put his head down and adhere to their primary plan.
Verstappen became agitated after lagging behind by almost four seconds. He tried to press harder but was still losing ground to the British driver. “The car isn’t responding to any of my inputs,” he lamented. For Piastri, Norris’s teammate, it was an even more frustrating time in the past.
Additionally, he dropped a position at the beginning, and McLaren decided to keep him running for a longer run to give him a tire advantage following his stop at the pits. He lost fourteen seconds as a result, but once he stopped, he did begin to gain ground and, in a matter of laps, he passed Russell for fourth place. The Ferrari pit wall gave Leclerc a hurry-up, and he was closing in on him, but he was simply not fast enough to keep Piastri behind.
Similarly, Verstappen was losing ground to Norris and was 12 seconds behind the 24-year-old who appeared to be coasting to a second career victory by lap 45 of 72. That’s precisely what he accomplished, ultimately winning by over 20 seconds. Even though Piastri lacked the necessary speed to secure a double podium, McLaren managed to further reduce Red Bull’s lead in the constructors’ championship.
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