Norris made up for his departure and revived his World Cup campaign with a solid win in Zandvoort

Sports Writing – British driver Lando Norris won the Dutch Formula 1 Grand Prix this Sunday with virtually no opposition, renewing his title in the Drivers’ World Championship despite a poor start, when he was overtaken by Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing), a shortcoming he made up for by exerting the pace of his McLaren eighteen laps later.

Norris took the second victory of his career and continued the drought that Verstappen had accumulated of five Grand Prix without a win, but despite this, with Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) as an “ally” in Monaco, he once again minimized the damage and left Zandvoort with a 70-point lead over the British driver despite being 23 seconds behind. The Briton set the fastest lap on the last lap and won the extra point.

Spanish driver Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) made a strong comeback from tenth to fifth, overtaking Spanish driver Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) on the track, only to be overtaken by French driver Pierre Gasly (Alpine Racing) at the start. Also finishing tenth was Mexican driver “Checo” Pérez (Red Bull), who lost one position to sixth.

Australian driver Oscar Piastri (McLaren) lost position at the start and immediately battled with Leclerc and British driver George Russell for third place, but was unable to overtake the Ferrari driver, who with unexpected speed avoided a “clean” Piastri attack on Verstappen to take third place.

Norris corrects McLaren’s poor start

All plans for McLaren were thrown out of whack at the start. Both Norris and Piastri were completely wrong and while Norris lost the lead to the detriment of Verstappen, Piastri did the same to British driver George Russell (Mercedes), who was almost third.

Likewise, Sainz, who started from 10th position, overtook Canadian driver Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), who was also overtaken by French driver Pierre Gasly (Alpine Racing), who made an excellent start and overtook Alonso to take 7th place. Asturias, who was seventh at the start, fell to ninth on the first lap and was overtaken by Sainz, who was eager to surpass 8th place.

Up front, Norris’ advantage of more than three tenths over Verstappen in the standings was not reflected in race pace as, over the first ten laps, the Dutchman held the Briton at bay, unable to close the gap of a second and a half between the two.

However, from the 11th lap onwards, Verstappen was in the lead and the three-time world champion began to observe in the rearview mirror that Norris’s medium tyres had hardly degraded and were already emerging in the “Mad Max” race on lap 13.

As Hamilton changed the dynamics of the top ten and started to overtake Alonso on soft tyres instead of mediums, Norris was hot on the heels of Verstappen, who was helpless on the long straight on lap 18 without much trouble.

He held on for a few laps, aided by DRS, but the Dutchman broke away from Norris after lap 21. It was then that the Bristol driver began to apply an “iron fist” pace, becoming the only driver to turn fifteen seconds at Zandvoort, which widened the gap to Verstappen by as much as seven tenths per lap.

Verstappen assured on the radio that the Austrian car did not respond to the “stimulus” so he was forced in, but all the difference Norris made was that he finished a few meters behind teammate Piastri.

Sainz returns, Piastri unable to beat Leclerc

Rather than fighting Russell for third, the Australian was trying to avoid losing fourth place to Monaco’s Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who was showing impressive pace, something Ferrari had not shown all weekend.

Leclerc initiated an undercut in the pits to achieve what he had been unable to achieve on track, and it went well, and he not only passed Leclerc, but also Russell due to the Briton’s poor stop, although Piastri took advantage of the clean air to fly up and pass Russell. Russell began a long-range attack on Leclerc for third place after the stop, but did not finish.

Norris continued to “walk” around the Dutch circuit, his only concern being whether Piastri could take second place from Verstappen, who was just six seconds behind with more than twenty laps left.

However, while Sainz took advantage of a late stop to overtake Perez and take fifth place after a commendable comeback, Piastri was unable to overtake Leclerc.

The Australian tried everything, aware that if this happened to him he could threaten Verstappen for second place, but he could not overtake fourth in a race, Russell and British driver Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) tried something different from the others: they stopped a second time, while the others just stopped, but even then they did not track Perez and Sainz.

Norris thus continues his struggle to revive the Drivers’ World Championship, something that just a few months ago seemed clear to Verstappen, who, however, has won too many big prizes without winning, partly because the car is no longer the best, and that is why he now watches Norris out of the corner of his eye rather than in the rearview mirror, and Norris will seek to get closer at Monza. Efei