McLaren’s Lando Norris put a stamp on Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix weekend in a big way.
After starting on the pole for Sunday’s event, Norris, who initially lost the lead to Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, fought back to score his second career F-1 win by a whopping 22.896 seconds over Verstappen.
“It feels amazing once again,” said Norris. “I wouldn’t say a perfect race, because of lap one again, but afterwards the pace was very strong – the car was unbelievable today. I could get comfortable, I could push and get past Max, which was the main thing, and I just [went] from there.
“Honestly, [it was] quite a straightforward race. Still tough, but very enjoyable.”
Norris caught Verstappen prior to the duo’s only pit stops of the day, which allowed the 24-year-old to gap the reigning champion in the latter stages of the race at Circuit Zandvoort.
Behind the front two, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc vaulted from sixth on the grid to third to snag the final podium spot ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
Carlos Sainz gave Ferrari a double top-five effort in fifth position.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez placed sixth ahead of the Mercedes duo of George Russell (seventh) and seven-time F-1 champion Lewis Hamilton (eighth).
“Today’s race was an odd one,” Russell said. “We didn’t have the pace and that was the case on all three tire compounds. It felt that I was sliding around quite a lot, suffering from high degradation, and slowly went backwards. We will have to understand why that was as we were relatively quick on Saturday.
“Performance does swing circuit to circuit, but we have been up near the front in the past six races. I am therefore confident that this is an outlier.”
Pierre Gasly crossed under the checkered flag in ninth. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rounded out the points in 10th.
Haas F-1’s Nico Hulkenberg just missed out on points in 11th-place while teammate Kevin Magnussen finished 18th.
American Logan Sargeant was 16th after starting last due to a practice crash.