Damon Hill provides ‘absolute’ verdict on Lando Norris’s victory at the Dutch Grand Prix

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If Lando Norris was dreaming of challenging Max Verstappen for the Drivers’ Championship during the summer break, he’ll be heading to Monza knowing he’s got a chance of achieving an almighty upset after his performance at Zandvoort.

The Dutch Grand Prix saw a sea of orange in every grandstand, but the papaya McLaren of Lando Norris dominated the race on Formula 1’s return.

Norris had another poor start from pole position, watching Max Verstappen overtake him going into turn one.

He seemed to suffer quite a lot of wheel spin although teammate Oscar Piastri also lost a place with a similar issue off the grid.

However, before the first round of pit stops Norris had already re-taken the lead, passing Verstappen with ease down the main straight.

The home crowd rose to their feet on Norris’s final run around the Zandvoort track, witnessing the Brit set the fastest lap of the race and watching Norris open up the biggest gap to Verstappen since Lewis Hamilton at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021.

Reflecting on the race on Instagram, former world champion Damon Hill gave his thoughts on Norris’s performance.

The gap at the top of the Drivers’ Championship has narrowed to 70 points with nine race weekends remaining.

Norris winning his first title when the chequered flag flies at the season finale at Abu Dhabi still appears to be a very unlikely outcome, but after the first Grand Prix post-summer break, he’s done everything possible to close the gap to the Dutchman.

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Damon Hill shares his thoughts on ‘100%’ Lando Norris’s performance at the Dutch Grand Prix

Although Norris was on the receiving end of some odd radio messages at the start of the race, he didn’t panic when he was outside of DRS range to Verstappen after his disappointing start.

He suddenly closed the gap when Verstappen started to suffer from some tyre degradation and within two laps of getting within the crucial one-second gap for his DRS to activate, he flew past the triple world champion down the inside of the start/finish line.

From there, all he and McLaren had to do was cover off Verstappen’s only pit stop and use the clean air to drive off into the distance.

After witnessing Norris’s second F1 victory, Hill said: “Absolute total application to the job this weekend 100% Winner.”

It’s hard to disagree with his short assessment of Norris not having to rely on a well-timed safety car as he did in Miami to get the better of Verstappen and Red Bull.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

Lando Norris and Max Verstappen stunned by one moment during the Dutch Grand Prix

It wasn’t an incident-filled Dutch Grand Prix with no retirements and not even a yellow flag at a circuit notorious for safety cars.

Logan Sargeant’s huge crash in practice thankfully wasn’t replicated and Haas managed to solve their braking issues that plagued Nico Hulkenberg throughout Friday and Saturday.

However, Norris and Verstappen were both surprised when watching how slow Kevin Magnussen was at one point in the race.

The Dane was trying to hold up the pack behind him to earn Nico Hulkenberg a point, but he ended up finishing agonisingly close in 11^th.

Alex Albon described Magnussen’s driving as dangerous and was fuming over the team radio with his behaviour.

Norris will be glad that the updates McLaren have installed over the past 12 months mean he no longer has to worry about midfield squabbles over the final points.

Instead, he can focus firmly on trying to deliver two titles for the team over the next few months.