After weeks of hype from the sport about the return of Formula One from its summer break, the Dutch Grand Prix served up a pretty tedious race for fans hungry to see some exciting on-track action. Polesitter Lando Norris of McLaren recovered from a poor getaway off the start and cruised to an easy victory after an early challenge from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
In the end, Norris crossed the line 22.896 seconds ahead of Verstappen, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third, another 2.543 seconds back. Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri was fourth, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz rounding out the top-five.
“Obviously, it didn’t start in the most optimistic way, but the pace was unbelievable from the beginning and I could go with Max quite happily at the start,” said Norris, who also put up the race’s fastest lap. “As soon as I got ahead, it was quite straightforward; I had good confidence to push the whole race, save the tires a little bit, but just get in a good rhythm and go from there.”
The win moved Norris seven points closer to Verstappen in the championship standings, although the Red Bull driver still leads by 71, with 295 markers to Norris’ 224 with nine races to go. Drivers get 25 points for a win.
While the points gap seems wide, the balance of power seems to have clearly shifted to McLaren, with Norris easily beating Verstappen at a track where he and Red Bull won the previous three races.
Although the Dutch driver took the lead when the lights went out, Norris easily kept him in his sights until Lap 18, when he made an easy pass in Turn 1 using the extra speed from the drag reduction system. And things could get even more challenging from here on out for Verstappen and Red Bull, with McLaren bringing upgrades to Holland on a car that was already quicker.
“I still feel like we probably would have won without the upgrades this weekend, [which] didn’t make us certainly a lot quicker here,” said Norris. “And this was our first time we really put something on the car to drive us a step forward and it definitely did that. And today, with how the car felt, I’m sure it was a step ahead. You know, a new rear wing probably helped me get past Max today.”
Verstappen’s home race marked the fifth consecutive start where he hasn’t managed a win, with his last victory coming in Spain in late June.
“We had a good start, so we tried everything we could today, but throughout the race, I think it was quite clear that we were not quick enough, so I tried to be second today,” said Verstappen. “I was just doing my own race, looking after the tires, and tried to do the best I could. Once [Norris] passed, I just focused on doing my race, tried to bring it to the end in second.”
Speculation also swirled about the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s move to close a loophole related to asymmetrical braking systems, something some believe Red Bull used on its car until the race in China. Such a system could direct greater pressure to one side of the rear axle on corner entry and help the car overcome understeer. The idea isn’t new, with McLaren using a brake-steer system in 1997, which helped reduce understeer by braking the inside rear wheel on corner entry.
Interestingly, the Red Bull seemed to lose much of its advantage once F1 arrived at the race in Miami, which happened immediately after China. In the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday, Verstappen complained about his car’s inability to turn and respond to his input.
“It’s just not a connected balance, front or rear — at one point, nothing was turning or responding anymore,” he said. “It wasn’t there in the first few races, but something in the car has made it more difficult to drive and it’s very hard to pinpoint where that is coming from at the moment. That is then hurting our one lap performance, but also long runs.”
While Verstappen left disappointed, Leclerc scored a second consecutive podium, in third, after a clever pit strategy got him ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell and in a good position to get a top-three finish. Leclerc ended the last race before the break in third, in Belgium.
“I’m not very often happy with a P3, but I think with today’s race, we can be extremely happy with the job we’ve done on a difficult weekend for the team,” said Leclerc, who sits third in the points, with 192. “In the race, we found some more pace, executed a perfect strategy — we undercut two of our competitors — and then we managed to keep them behind, so a really strong race for the team and really happy to start the second half like this.”
Piastri used a different strategy from teammate Norris and ran long in his first stint. His attempt to use fresher tires at the end to leapfrog up the order didn’t work and he could not get past Leclerc for the final podium place.
Further back, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton recovered from a poor qualifying and a penalty for impeding Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, that saw his start 14th, to get some points for eighth. Canadian Lance Stroll finished 13th in his Aston Martin, one lap behind the leaders.
