Lando Norris beats Max Verstappen to win the Dutch Grand Prix and cut standings gap

ZANDVOORT, Netherlands (AP) — Lando Norris just can’t seem to get his starts right. For once, it didn’t stop him beating Max Verstappen.

Norris started on pole position but was slow off the line — a persistent problem for him — allowing Red Bull driver Verstappen to jump ahead.

Norris closed the gap and overtook Verstappen into the opening corner on the 18th lap of 72 and was then on course for his second career win and the McLaren team’s third of the year.

“After getting done into turn one and off the line, I was actually surprisingly calm,” Norris said. “Maybe because I’m a bit used to going backwards at the start, I’m very prepared for those kinds of scenarios. I was very calm and just ‘OK, well what can I do now?’”

Verstappen was beaten at his home race for the first time and saw his lead over Norris cut from 78 points to 70 with nine races remaining.

It was Norris’ fourth career pole position, but the first time he won after starting on pole. Verstappen pulled away but Norris reeled him back in as Verstappen started to complain his tires lacked grip. Norris finally took the lead back down the inside of the banked “Tarzan” turn. After that, Norris methodically stretched his lead to nearly 23 seconds at the flag, building a gap in case of a safety-car restart which never came.

After losing the lead at the start, “I expected Max to start pushing and get a bit of a gap but he never did,” Norris said.

“So from that point I knew we were in with a good fight. But he seemed to just keep dropping off and my pace was getting better. It’s a nice feeling inside the car and especially when I got past, I could just get comfortable.”

Norris had defended himself as “still up there” with the best starters in F1 on Saturday. After taking the win Sunday, he suggested there might be an “underlying issue” causing wheelspin on the otherwise dominant McLaren car, given that teammate Oscar Piastri also lost a place at the start.

In every other phase of the race, it was clear that Norris and McLaren had the fastest car following McLaren’s latest upgrades. That points to what could be an increasingly competitive title fight with Verstappen in the last nine races of the season after the Dutch driver was far ahead of the rest in 2022 and 2023.

Verstappen finished second and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third after holding off Piastri.

Norris is the first McLaren driver to win in the Netherlands since Niki Lauda in 1985, and Verstappen is without a win in five races, his longest winless run since 2020.

“I think it was quite clear that we’re not quick enough, so I tried to be second today,” Verstappen said.

He suggested that “something has been going on lately with the car” that Red Bull needs to figure out to combat twin problems of a lack of pace and higher-than-expected tire wear.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was fifth for Ferrari and Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was sixth, ahead of the two Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

In a sign of how badly Perez has struggled in recent races, sixth place was his best finish since fourth at the Miami Grand Prix in May.

In the first race since Hamilton inherited the win at the Belgian Grand Prix after Russell was disqualified for an underweight car, the two Mercedes drivers again had contrasting days.

Russell briefly took third place off Piastri at the start before gradually dropping back to seventh, while Hamilton started 14th after a grid penalty but rose six places.

Pierre Gasly was ninth for Alpine and Fernando Alonso 10th in an Aston Martin.

McLaren cut the gap to Red Bull in the constructors’ championship to 30 points as the team chases its first title since 1998.

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