Lando Norris scored his second win of the 2024 F1 season at the Dutch GP, in a race which he dominated despite losing out to Max Verstappen at the start and only reclaiming the top spot on lap 18, with what he called a “straightforward” overtake on the Dutchman.
In what is becoming somewhat of a trend in the last few events, the Briton couldn’t keep hold of his pole position in the dash down towards the first corner, and had to settle for second behind the reigning world champion for the opening stages of the grand prix.
Speaking after the race, Norris admitted he is yet to understand what went wrong in the first few meters off the line, as it could possibly have been a general issue with the McLaren car given his team-mate and Hungarian GP winner Oscar Piastri also lost a place off the five lights:
“I’m not sure honestly what happened at the start.
“It’s something different to what we’ve [previously] had, and I know both Oscar [Piastri] and myself didn’t have a great start.
“So I don’t know if we misjudged something, I’m not sure. But we’ll look into it, we’ll review it and do better next time.”
Despite the difficult start, the now two-time grand prix winner made amends with an assured and dominant drive to lead Verstappen home by over 22 seconds, after getting past the Red Bull on lap 18 – and admitted he knew it was within his grasp from quite early in the race, as he saw the Dutchman sliding around and struggling with his tyres:
“It feels amazing,” Norris said about his second grand prix win. “I wouldn’t say a perfect race because of lap one again, but it was still beautiful. The pace was strong, the car was unbelievable.
“I could push and get past Max. It was a straightforward race. Tough but enjoyable [race].
“From quite early on, from lap six or seven, I expected Max [Verstappen] to start pushing and open up a gap and he never did,” he added. “[And] from that point I felt we were in the fight. He seemed to keep dropping off and my pace was getting better.
“The main thing is we stayed calm after that [start]. I went down to second [place] and I knew beating Max would be a tough task today,” he said. “But the car was amazing [and] felt incredible out there.
“I had a lot of confidence, I could push pretty much throughout the whole race. And he seemed to just a little bit more with degradation and just [raw] pace.”
Verstappen, in front of his home crowd, had no answer to the charging McLaren as it went past in the main straight, and Norris believes that was a key moment in maximising his opportunity to get clear air and “control” the race from the front – which even allowed him to set the fastest lap of the race and score a crucial extra point on the final tour, beating Lewis Hamilton’s soft-tyred effort on worn out hard tyres:
“The overtake was quite straightforward – I had one opportunity, I maximised that, and as soon as I got into the lead I could just control things and drive my own pace, doing what I needed to do and what I wanted to do.
“It’s almost easier being there than being second sometimes, but other times it’s vice-versa. Today was just a nice, controlled race. The pace was incredible, and [we] even saved a little bit for the [fastest lap] at the end.”
Reflecting on McLaren’s extraordinary rise to the top of Formula 1 in the last couple of seasons, the 24-year-old said it’s important to emphasize the hard work done by McLaren’s staff over the last 18 months in order to go from “being lapped” by Red Bull in several races to convincingly out-pacing them in Zandvoort this year:
“The turnaround started a long time ago,” said Norris about McLaren’s rise. “Now is when we’re proving what we’ve done and the hard work that’s gone into it. But it started over a year ago, at least one-and-a-half years ago.
“It’s incredible to remind ourselves of where we were and what we are able to achieve now. [From] getting lapped by Red Bull in most races to beating them by 20 and something seconds today, it just shows the work that we’ve been putting in.
“Not so much what I’ve done, but the team in delivering a car that can do what it did today, so a big thanks to them – that’s the main thing – it’s not so much me, but a little bit of both.”
The Woking squad brought the first major upgrades to the MCL38 since their game-changing Miami GP package in early May, and are once again reaping the benefits of good car understanding and upgrades that instantly deliver the expected gains and improvements:
“We’ve brought some upgrades, things [that] have helped us, and that all plays a part, so we’ll keep chipping away, because it’s working well, and keep trying to make it even easier for me.”
Norris now trails Verstappen by 70 points in the drivers’ world championship, with 9 races and three sprints remaining, the title fight could heat up if McLaren can keep up this sort of performance for the remainder of the season.
