McLaren’s Lando Norris stormed to victory at the Dutch Grand Prix, a superb drive consigning home favourite Max Verstappen to his first-ever loss in front of his “Orange Army” fans.
The British driver claimed his second career chequered flag on Sunday after winning in Miami in May, closing Verstappen’s lead over him in the world championship to 70 points, with the Dutchman coming second.
Despite raucous encouragement from a packed Zandvoort circuit, Verstappen could not extract enough from his Red Bull to compete with a recently upgraded McLaren that is beginning to look like the car to beat in Formula One.
The start was critical. Norris was sluggish off the line, allowing Verstappen to power around the outside to huge cheers from the crowd, who saw their man take the lead and open up a sizeable gap.
By lap 18, Norris had reeled the world champion in, passing him on the outside at turn one, Verstappen powerless to prevent the overtake and quickly falling further behind.
By lap 40, Norris had extended the advantage to more than 10 seconds over the Red Bull driver and just had to stay out of trouble to take the chequered flag.
His eventual margin of victory over Verstappen was 22.896 seconds, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc holding off Norris’s McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to claim the third podium spot after a thrilling battle.
Red Bull’s struggling second driver Sergio Perez finished in sixth position, meaning the gap in the constructors’ championship also narrowed.
The Formula One circus now moves on to the famous Monza track in Italy next weekend, round 16 of 24 with everyone snapping at Verstappen’s heels.
Verstappen has not won a Grand Prix since Barcelona in June, his longest barren spell since 2020 and while it is premature to talk of panic stations at Red Bull, the Dutch weekend will have given some cause for concern.
