Red Bull’s damning admission as Lando Norris wins Dutch Grand Prix

Red Bull’s run of dominance in F1 is crumbling around them as the team boss made a startling admission over one of their rivals.

Things aren’t going well recently for Red Bull. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

McLaren’s Lando Norris stormed to victory at the Dutch Grand Prix, consigning home favourite Max Verstappen to his first-ever loss in front of his “Orange Army” fans.

The British driver claimed his second career chequered flag after winning in Miami in May, closing Verstappen’s lead over him in the world championship to 70 points, with the Dutchman coming second.

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Despite raucous encouragement from a packed Zandvoort circuit, Verstappen could not extract enough from his Red Bull to compete with a recently upgraded McLaren that is beginning to look like the car to beat in Formula One.

“It feels amazing … the pace was very strong and the car was unbelievable today,” said Norris, who also secured a point for the fastest lap.

The dominant run of McLaren, along with Sergio Perez’s struggles, means the gap in the constructors’ championship narrowed from 42 points to 30.

It left Red Bull team boss Christian Horner to make a damning admission regarding their rivals.

“Their car was in a different league today,” Red Bull’s Christian Horner told Sky Sports.

“We did everything we could. Max converted P2 into the lead, but you could see their pace was in a different league.

Lando secured his second victory. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP)

The start was critical. Questions have been asked of the starting ability of Norris, who has three times this season failed to convert pole position into a first lap lead.

And again Norris was sluggish off the line, allowing Verstappen to power around the outside to huge cheers from the crowd, who saw their man take a 0.9-second advantage into the second lap.

Buoyed by the fast start, Verstappen clocked the quickest lap in lap two, putting clear daylight between him and the McLaren of Norris.

But the McLaren had been the fastest car in the paddock all race weekend and Norris started slowly but surely eating into Verstappen’s lead.

By lap 17 out of 72, Norris was only a few tenths of a second behind Verstappen, the Dutchman complaining on his team radio of a lack of grip from his tyres.

Norris passed him a lap later on the outside at turn one, Verstappen powerless to prevent the overtake and quickly falling further behind.

“I can’t go faster. The car is not responding to my inputs,” a desperate Verstappen told his engineers as Norris stretched his advantage to more than four seconds.

Max couldn’t keep up. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

On lap 25, Verstappen decided enough was enough and he needed a new set of tyres.

Norris pitted the lap after, his team taking 0.6 seconds longer than the Red Bull for the pit stop.

Nevertheless, Norris emerged from the two stops five seconds ahead of his rival and promptly produced the fastest lap of the race on his new set of tyres.

By lap 40, Norris had extended the advantage to more than 10 seconds over the three-time champion and just had to stay out of trouble to take the chequered flag.

His eventual margin of victory was 22.896 seconds, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc holding off Norris’s McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to claim the third podium spot after a thrilling battle.

Daniel Ricciardo gained four places after starting the race in 16th. He would finish 12th, four places ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

McLaren are hot on the heels of Red Bull. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

“I wouldn’t say a perfect race because of lap one again, but afterwards it was beautiful,” said Norris.

“I expected Max to start pushing and get a bit of a gap. And he never did. So from that point, I knew we were in with a good fight,” added Norris.

“But he seemed to just keep dropping off. And my pace was getting better. So it’s a nice feeling inside the car. And especially when I got past, you know, I could just get comfortable.”

The F1 circus now moves on to the famous Monza track in Italy next weekend, round 16 of 24 with everyone snapping at Verstappen’s heels.

“You always try to do better and we had a good start, we tried everything we could today, but throughout the race it was quite clear that we are not quick enough, so I tried to be second today,” said Verstappen.

DUTCH GRAND PRIX RESULTS

1. Lando Norris (McLaren), 2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 4. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)

5. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), 6. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)

7. George Russell (Mercedes), 8. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

9. Pierre Gasly (Alpine), 10. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

11. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), 12. Daniel Ricciardo (RB)

13. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), 14. Alex Albon (Williams)

15. Esteban Ocon (Alpine), 16. Logan Sargeant (Williams)

17. Yuki Tsunoda (RB), 18. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

19. Valtteri Bottas (Sauber), 20. Zhou Guanyu (Sauber)

Fastest lap: Lando Norris (McLaren)

Originally published as Red Bull’s damning admission as Lando Norris wins Dutch Grand Prix