Lando Norris rebounded from another sluggish start to repass championship leader Max Verstappen and cruise to a dominant win at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
Norris lost his pole position advantage at lights out, but McLaren’s speed shone through as he sauntered clear to his second F1 success, with Charles Leclerc in third.
Alex Albon’s exclusion and Logan Sargeant’s crash meant the two Williams drivers were situated at the back but not last as Kevin Magnussen started from the pitlane.
With a one-stop predicted, the top 10 went on Mediums. Further down, Yuki Tsunoda, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were on Softs, while Magnussen took Hards.
Norris’ previous five starts from pole position had seen him relinquish the lead on the opening lap and that occurred again as Verstappen managed a stronger launch.
Behind them, George Russell displaced Oscar Piastri in the sister McLaren to take over third, while Leclerc in the Ferrari moved up one spot on Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Elsewhere, Pierre Gasly passed the Aston Martin drivers to claim seventh place, as Hamilton charged past the slow-starting Daniel Ricciardo in the RB on the first lap.
Hamilton’s surge on the red-walled compound continued as he overtook Yuki Tsunoda in the sister RB into the Turn 11/12 chicane to move his Mercedes up into 12th.
Verstappen had escaped DRS range to Norris behind and was controlling the gap at over one second across the nascent exchanges, with Russell three seconds back.
Having passed one Aston Martin in Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz’s bid to claw his Ferrari up the order continued on the ninth lap as he passed Fernando Alonso at Turn 1.
Sainz had overhauled Alonso around the outside at the opening turn, but the Spaniard went to the inside on Gasly, who made the Ferrari driver work to secure seventh.
Despite rueing his lacklustre straight-line speed, Hamilton moved past Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas into 11th spot, with the Briton turning attention to Stroll’s Aston Martin.
Williams had elected to trigger an undercut with Albon pitting on Lap 12 and switching onto the Hards, prompting Haas and RB to react with Hulkenberg and Tsunoda.
Back at the sharp end, Norris reported that his pace was positive and he was teetering around DRS range as the leading contenders came around to complete Lap 14.
Hamilton scampered past Stroll using DRS down the start-finish straight earlier in that lap to propel his Mercedes into the points places, as his team-mate ran in third.
Norris was now right with Verstappen and he didn’t need a second invitation to open the flap in his rear wing on the main straight to blast past the Red Bull on Lap 18.
Verstappen’s comments over the radio expressed discomfort with how his rubber was evolving and Norris utilised that advantage to create a one-second plus margin.
As Norris was continuing to eke out the gap to Verstappen at an exponential rate, Piastri was looking in his mirrors as Leclerc was close at Turn 1 on successive laps.
Hamilton was right with Gasly when Mercedes made the decision to discard his Softs on Lap 23, while Ferrari opted to attempt the undercut on cars ahead on Lap 24.
Mercedes reacted to Ferrari’s stop with Russell on Lap 25, but Leclerc did enough, despite being tucked up behind Alonso’s Aston Martin to gain crucial track position.
Verstappen was the next driver among the leaders to pit on Lap 27 and he emerged in fifth place, with McLaren opting to cover that stop next time around with Norris.
Ferrari boxed Sainz on Lap 31 to promote Verstappen, Leclerc and Russell up one place, but Piastri continued to circulate on Mediums as McLaren extended his stint.
McLaren would pit Piastri on Lap 34 to hand the lead back to team-mate Norris, with the Australian returning to the track in fifth spot, behind both Leclerc and Russell.
Stroll was noted over a speeding infraction in the pitlane and the Canadian racer, who was running outside the points in 14th place, was handed a five-second penalty.
Piastri capitalised on his newer rubber compared to those ahead to reel in Mercedes at a rapid rate and he made a simple pass into Turn 1 on Lap 40 to secure fourth.
Sainz was another who was utilising that advantage to close on Perez, who slammed the door on the Ferrari driver as he went around the outside at Turn 1 on Lap 45.
Perez was powerless to prevent Sainz from completing that move on Lap 47, however, as the Spaniard swept past and into sixth, with Russell 2.8s up the road in fifth.
Hamilton was running on his own back in eighth place and Mercedes used the substantial margin behind to Hulkenberg’s Haas to make a second stop onto the Softs.
Mercedes’ struggles in race conditions saw Sainz make inroads on Russell over fifth place, resulting in the marque deciding to bring the Briton into the pits on Lap 55.
Piastri was continuing to shadow Leclerc’s Ferrari, but without getting close enough to attempt an overtake in the battle over the final position on the podium rostrum.
Norris’ troubles at the start continued here at Zandvoort, but on this occasion, McLaren’s upgraded MCL38 possessed the raw speed to make that slip-up insignificant.
The Briton roared home to take the chequered flag with 22s in hand over Verstappen, who witnessed his unbeaten streak at his home track come to an emphatic end.
Piastri was unable to make it both McLarens on the podium as Leclerc delivered a faultless run to accrue third position against his and Ferrari’s pre-race expectations.
Sainz recovered five places to complete the top five in his Ferrari car, while Perez came a distant sixth. Russell headed Hamilton as Mercedes were seventh and eighth.
Alpine’s slow pit stop threatened to thwart Gasly’s endeavours, but it ended up having zero bearing as he claimed ninth place, with Alonso’s Aston Martin in 10th place.
