Norris takes fireworks away from Verstappen at Zandvoort
It was an orange car to win in front of the orange crowd, but not the result the Dutch fans had hoped for. Lando Norris outperformed Max Verstappen and took victory at the Dutchman's home race. Verstappen finished a distant second as Leclerc completed the podium for Ferrari.
No rain today at Zandvoort as the sun welcomed the drivers to the starting grid. When the lights went out it was immediately home hero Verstappen who took the lead, getting off the line much much faster than pole sitter Norris.
Russell and Leclerc, both starting on the same side of the track as Verstappen, also made great starts and both gained a position. Pierre Gasly even gained two while Alonso lost one, down into 8th. Lewis Hamilton on the soft tyres - just like Tsunoda and Bottas - also moved up a spot, into 13th.
Zhou had a very poor start and immediately lost position to both Williams and the next lap also dropped behind Magnussen. The Haas driver had started on hard tyres from the pitlane. Magnussen though found soon afterwards did some gravel running and therefore again dropped down to last, followed by taking 19th back from Zhou on lap 7. Magnussen though eventually found the right rythm and managed to gain some positions as others, including his team mate Hulkenberg pitted.
Meanwhile, Sainz and Hamilton both made considerable progress through the field. Sainz had started from 10th but thanks to a pass after a very close duel with Pierre Gasly found himself in 7th place. Hamilton on the other hand went on to 9th place by lap 19 while other soft runners had long ago pitted and changed to hard tyres.
Up in front there was also an obvious change as Norris quickly seemed to close into Verstappen after the Dutchman had pulled an initial lead of 3 seconds. Norris tried an overtake into Turn 1 and failed initially but got the lead on lap 19 with his second try at Turn 1. Verstappen held on in DRS for a few laps but had lost 3s by lap 23, partly thanks to impressive first sector times by Norris.
On lap 24 Hamilton pitted after failing to get past Gasly. The Briton returned to the track in 16th position on fresh hard tyre. He immediately recorded the fastest second sector thus far.
That speed surely alerted some teams with Ferrari immediately calling in Leclerc as well. Russell and Mercedes then reacted to Ferrari's stop, rejoining in 9th place, right behind Leclerc and Alonso.
Verstappen was pitted on lap 28, triggering McLaren to immediately call Norris in as well. The McLaren stop was slightly slower but a gap of 5 seconds remained between the two, now in 4th and 5th place. In fact, as the others ahead pitted in the next few laps and Norris inherited the lead once again his advantage to Verstappen only increased.
Leclerc enjoyed a solid 3rd place after the stops initially but then got company of Piastri around lap 45. The Australian had pitted later than the others and therefore had tyres that were 9 laps younger than those of Leclerc.
The other Ferrari of Sainz also ran well as the Spaniard could pressure Perez for 6th. Sainz eventually got past Perez, dropping the Red Bull driver to 7th. Perez at the time was notably running faster than Verstappen as the Red Bulls were unable to match the pace of Norris or the Ferraris at any moment in the second stint.
Hamilton meanwhile pitted on lap 50 and chose to switch back to softs after having enjoyed a solid first stint on that compound. The Mercedes driver returned to the track in no man's land, 8th, 22 seconds behind Perez and 10s ahead of Hulkenberg.
When Russell started to get under pressure from Sainz, Mercedes felt there was no point in going on so they pitted Russell for a similar switch to soft tyres. He rejoined in 7th place, 2.5s ahead of his team mate. They would maintain those positions until the chequered flag while Hamilton recorded the fastest lap of the race, only to be pitted for that point by Lando Norris on the final lap.
Up in front, Norris didn't come under threat any more and actually won with more than 20 seconds of an advantage on Max Verstappen. Charles Leclerc held on to third place, leaving Piastri to miss third place by 1.6 seconds.
As Sainz finished 5th, the "difficult weekend" for Ferrari turned out not to be too bad after all. Red Bull and Mercedes on the other hand had probably hoped for more.
