Lando Norris won the 2026 F1 Dutch GP in dominant fashion, and he did so by battling Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes for the best part of three-quarters of the race distance after losing the lead at the restart following the red flag for Max Verstappen’s first-lap shunt at the final corner.
Norris looked comfortably quick enough to follow Antonelli closely for most of the race, and a slightly offset tyre strategy allowed the McLaren driver to overtake the Mercedes around the outside of Tarzan corner on lap 54 and steadily started to pull away from the championship leader.
There was still late drama though, as a Virtual Safety Car for Esteban Ocon’s stranded Haas meant Mercedes opted to pit Antonelli for a fresh set of the soft compound tyres and set after Norris in a chase to the end, which fell short by just over 11 seconds.
“Well fought” – Norris’s “pretty high” rating of his 2026 F1 Dutch GP win
A previous winner of this race, the reigning world champion believes his most recent win in Zandvoort ranks “pretty high” among his best drives in F1, explaining that the “well fought” nature of not just the race, but his and McLaren’s weekend as a whole at the 2026 Dutch GP, turning what was a pretty evident deficit in the Sprint portion of the weekend into a significant step forward for the main event:
“[I rate it] pretty high,” he said comparing to his other 12 victories in F1. “I mean, pretty high just from a point of just very well fought in many ways.
“More than that, is the turnaround from yesterday to today. I was pretty disappointed yesterday. It kind of took a little bit of the fire out of me, seeing how much we struggled in the Sprint.
“I know it’s just a Sprint, but, you know, every point matters and we just really didn’t have the pace,” he lamented. “I didn’t have that something that gave me life inside the car.
“Last night we worked very, very hard. I spent a lot of time with my engineers to kind of understand what we could do better today, how to push more, save the tyres more, how to do everything in a better way than I’ve done, and better than everyone else. And I certainly believe I did that today.”
“A mix of races” – Norris’ race was a tale of two halves that “reminded” him of the Sprint
Despite coming out on top at the end, the McLaren driver explained that all was not well at the beginning of the 72-lap race, as the difficult start and the lack of raw pace compared to Antonelli meant he had flashes of his Sprint struggles – but was relieved that those went away as the hard tyres were fitted:
“Apart from the start, it was a little bit of a mix of races, because the beginning in the first stint was pretty bad and kind of reminded me of yesterday.
“But we put the hard tyres on and things came alive and the race really started to come back to me.”
Norris had enough pace to “force mistakes” from Mercedes and Antonelli in 2026 F1 Dutch GP
The reigning world champion was adamant that the main difference between Saturday and Sunday was just raw pace, and explained how that allowed him to make substantial gains on Antonelli and force the Mercedes driver into an unwanted territory, where he could “force mistakes” from his opponent:
“It’s just pace advantage. It’s just the knowledge of being able to win, [as] I didn’t have that yesterday.
“I didn’t think we had the pace to win, or we didn’t have the pace to win yesterday, and that kind of didn’t give me a lot of hope for today, even with the pole yesterday, and certainly not after lap one and getting done off the line, and even the first stint.
“I know when the car gives me what I want, on top of that when I’m driving at the level I am now, I can win races. And that’s exactly what I went from the first stint, I didn’t have what I wanted from the car.
“We put on the hard tyres, we were a bit more aggressive with how we wanted to approach the stint, we turned things around, and I had that feeling in the car that I wanted.
“And I went from just not feeling like I was going to win a race to, ‘at least we can force him to make mistakes.’
“He started to make a lot more mistakes when I was behind him,” Norris noted. “We forced Mercedes to do something with strategy. This opened up our availability to push, to extend. So, it’s just when I get what I need from a car, when I have the front I want, when I’ve got the confidence with the rear on entries, just when I get what I need to be able to know and predict every single corner, I’m going to win a race.
“But if I don’t have that, even like the first stint, then there’s not much I can do.”
Losing the lead off the start line was due to difference in grip between sides of the grid in 2026 Dutch GP
After maintaining the lead comfortably in the first start, Norris was left behind at the standing start following the early red flag, as Antonelli swoop through into the lead.
When asked if the start had become a bit of an issue for him and the McLaren team in 2026, Norris was quick to dismiss it, saying his poor launch off the line at the restart of the Dutch GP was mainly due to a yet to be understood “difference in grip” between the left and right sides of the grid:
“No, not at all,” he said when asked if starts are still a weakness for him and McLaren. “I’m one of the best starters on the grid. We saw already yesterday that from pole the grip was less than on P2. That was evident again today. I don’t know why. I need to go see. I’ve not seen what happened with my start, but of course I’ve got to review it with my team and understand what went wrong.
“But even on the first start, Oscar [Piastri] I think, started on the inside on a more wet track, but he could attack the launch more than I could from pole when I was more conservative with my launch, and I had more wheelspin than him.
“So, it really made no sense why I had such little grip. And in some ways we were expecting it, hence we started on soft compared to a different tyre. But, yeah, I don’t want to just blame myself or the team at the minute.
“Certainly, a large part of it was we didn’t understand why I had such little grip compared to the right side of the grid. So sometimes it’s just a bit unfortunate. But, yeah, like I said, I’ve not seen everything, so I need to go and speak with the team. But I’m confident in my first laps.”
