Lando Norris claimed his second Formula One victory with a dominant performance at the Dutch Grand Prix to beat Max Verstappen in his home race.
Despite losing the lead at the first corner, Norris managed to get back on Verstappen and immediately opened up a gap on the Red Bull to secure a commanding lead over the Dutchman – crossing the line with a 22.9-second lead. With the fastest lap, Norris was able to reduce Verstappen’s championship lead to 70 points.
“It’s an incredible feeling, again I wouldn’t say it was a perfect race because of the first lap, but after that it was beautiful,” said Norris. “The pace was very strong, the car was incredible and I was able to feel comfortable, push and pass Max.
“I think right from the beginning, pretty much from lap 5, 6, 7, I was expecting Max to start pushing and get a little bit of a lead, but he never did. From that point on, I knew we were in a good battle, but he seemed to keep losing ground. And my pace was improving.”
The pressure was on Norris to hold the lead into Turn 1, having been unable to do so from pole in Barcelona and Hungary, but the McLaren driver ended up accumulating too much wheelspin through the first corner and lost ground to Verstappen into Turn 1.
Verstappen then shattered any hope of a DRS fightback by immediately putting over a second ahead of Norris, which grew to 1.5 seconds over the next few laps to keep Norris at bay.
The Red Bull driver was unable to extend the gap further, however, as Norris hooked up just outside the DRS margin and Verstappen struggled to enter the slower corners. After the first 15 laps, Norris then deviated from his initial handling to close in on Verstappen, although his attempt with DRS into Turn 1 at the start of lap 17 was averted.
His attack on the following lap was not up to par however and he continued to build momentum into Turn 14 to pass Verstappen on the inside.
Soon after, Norris pulled away from Verstappen and began to pull away from his championship rival with a pace of over half a second per lap. Despite Verstappen stopping a lap early for a tyre change, Norris maintained a healthy lead and disappeared down the road in a display of overwhelming dominance, in true Verstappen fashion.
Charles Leclerc completed the top three after overcoming a long period of pressure from Oscar Piastri, having underestimated the Australian and George Russell during pit stops.
The Monegasque quickly managed the traffic around him after his stop to ensure he got clear of Russell and, despite Piastri’s best efforts, Leclerc retained enough top speed into Turn 1 to keep Piastri at bay.
Piastri had taken more time in the race to claw back a nine-lap gap on the hard tyres for the second phase; although he caught and passed Russell with relative ease, Leclerc proved a much tougher nut to crack.
Carlos Sainz recovered from his Q2 exit to finish fifth with a series of well-judged overtakes, ending the streak and getting the better of Sergio Perez despite the Mexican’s strong defence to move up to sixth.
He was on course to finish fifth by catching Russell, but the Briton pitted to try his luck on soft tyres towards the end of the race. It didn’t entirely work out, as Russell ran out of time – and, indeed, pace – to catch Perez and lost a position on track.
Lewis Hamilton also made a strong comeback to finish eighth, having also retired in Q2 and been given a grid penalty for impeding Perez. Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso completed the top 10, with the latter pushing Nico Hulkenberg out of the points.
