Norris recovers from nightmare start to spoil Verstappen's Dutch GP party

For the first time since the sport returned to Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix in 2021, Max Verstappen wasn't victorious in front of his home fans. Prior to Saturday's qualifying session, Verstappen had a 100% record in the meaningful sessions, but his success in front of his home fans has well and truly ended this weekend. The Dutch fans were spotted applauding Norris on the final lap. But Verstappen, who has now raced in 200 Grand Prix, has bigger things to worry about with nine rounds remaining in the 2024 Formula 1 season.

Verstappen's championship lead has been cut by eight points, but Red Bull will be concerned about the Constructors World Championship. Going into the weekend, Red Bull had a 42-point lead, which has been reduced to 30. Sergio Perez started P5 but dropped back to P6. McLaren and Norris aced the Dutch Grand Prix and dominated it on pure pace. That will leave Red Bull with plenty of concern going into the final nine Grand Prix weekends of the season.

Ferrari had a positive result, with a P3 and P5. Mercedes will be left scratching their heads after being the form team going into the summer break. They could only manage P7 and P8.

How the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix happened

Norris qualified for pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort by being three-tenths faster than the home favourite. Verstappen started from second place, inside a McLaren sandwich, with Oscar Piastri in third. George Russell completed the second row, whilst Sergio Perez had a place in the top five. Lewis Hamilton failed to escape Q2 and picked up a grid penalty for impeding so started from 14th. The entire top ten started on medium tyres.

Norris' nightmare starts continuing as Verstappen gets away quicker. The Dutchman took the lead before the first corner. Piastri also struggled off the line, and Russell made it into P3. By the end of the first lap, Verstappen had opened up a lead of more than one second. Perez dropped behind Charles Leclerc at the start.

On lap 13, Norris started to showcase a bit more speed and got within DRS range again. The pressure started to mount on Verstappen, who reported his tyres were numb. Norris then made an overtake down the home straight on lap 18. By lap 24, the gap was up to 3.5 seconds.

Pit window

On lap 28, Red Bull Racing pulled in Verstappen for a set of hard tyres. He emerged back on track in P5 with a nine-second free air gap to fourth-placed Carlos Sainz. Due to the gap Norris had created, he could afford a relatively relaxed pitstop. A 3.1-second stop meant he comfortably returned to the circuit ahead of Verstappen. Perez had a painful 4.4-second stop. 

McLaren left Piastri out until the end of lap 33 to give him as much tyre advantage as possible on the hard tyre. The McLaren car looked mighty on the hard tyre, and the Australian quickly started to make progress in pursuit of Verstappen by overtaking Russell in one move. However, he struggled behind Charles Leclerc.