ZANDVOORT, Netherlands — Lando Norris can’t seem to get his starts right. For once, it didn’t stop him from Max Verstappen.
Norris started on pole position but was slow to get going – a persistent problem for him – which meant Red Bull driver Verstappen has a lead.
Norris closed the gap and overtook Verstappen at the first corner on lap 18 of 72 and was then on his way to his second career victory and the McLaren the third team of the year.
“After I went into the first corner and got off the line, I was actually surprisingly calm,” Norris said. “Maybe because I’m used to backing up at the start, I’m well prepared for those kinds of scenarios. I was very calm and just thought, ‘OK, what can I do now?'”
Verstappen was beaten for the first time at his home race and his lead over Norris was reduced from 78 to 70 points with nine races remaining.
It was Norris’ fourth career pole position, but the first time he had won after starting on pole. Verstappen pulled away, but Norris caught up again when Verstappen began complaining that his tires had no grip. Norris eventually retook the lead on the inside of the corner with a “Tarzan” turn. Norris then methodically extended his lead to almost 23 seconds at the flag, building a gap in case a safety car restart was called, but it never came.
After losing the lead at the start, “I expected Max to push and get a bit of a lead, but he never did,” said Norris.
“So from that moment on I knew we were in a good fight. But he just kept dropping out and my pace got better. It’s a nice feeling in the car and especially once I got past I could just make it comfortable.”
Norris had defended himself as “still one of the best starters” in Formula 1 on Saturday. After taking victory on Sunday, he suggested there may have been an “underlying issue” causing wheelspin on the otherwise dominant McLaren car, as team-mate Oscar Piastri also dropped a place at the start.
At every other stage of the race, it was clear that Norris and McLaren had the quickest car following McLaren’s latest upgrades, pointing to what could be an increasingly competitive title fight with Verstappen over the final nine races of the season after the Dutch driver was well ahead of the pack in 2022 and 2023.
Verstappen came second and Ferraris Charles Leclerc took third after holding off Piastri.
Norris is the first McLaren driver to win in the Netherlands since Niki Lauda in 1985, and Verstappen has gone five races without a win, his longest streak without a win since 2020.
“I think it was clear that we are not fast enough, so I tried to get second today,” said Verstappen.
He suggested that there has been “something going on with the car recently” that Red Bull needs to address to address the twin issues of a lack of pace and higher than expected tyre wear.
Carlos Sainz Jr. was fifth for Ferrari and Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was sixth, ahead of the two Mercedes by George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
In a sign of how much Perez has struggled in recent races, sixth place was his best result since fourth in Miami. Grand Prix in may.
In the first race since Hamilton took victory at the Belgian Grand Prix after Russell was disqualified for a car that was too lightthe two Mercedes drivers once again experienced contrasting days.
Russell briefly took third place from Piastri at the start, but gradually fell back to seventh. Hamilton started fourteenth after a grid penalty, but rose six places.
Pierre Gasly finished ninth for Alpine and Fernando Alonso 10th in a Aston Martin.
McLaren has closed its gap to Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship to 30 points as the team chases its first title since 1998.