Verstappen’s unbeaten home run is in doubt – but can Norris convert?

On Friday, fresh from a four-week summer break, Lando Norris threw down the gauntlet from the get-go on the coast of the North Sea in Zandvoort. At the conclusion of a wet-turned-dry opening practice session, the McLaren driver – playing the role of world championship contender for the first time in his career – went faster than home Dutch hero Max Verstappen, three times a world champion.
With 10 races left this season, it is an order on the leaderboard which will need repeating over the coming weeks if this year’s F1 title race is to go down to the wire.
If you’d asked Norris and McLaren at the start of the season that, post-summer break, they would be in second place with a deficit of less than 80 points to top spot, they’d have taken it and driven off into the distance. The stark reality is, however, that the gap should be tighter than the current 78-point margin.
Arguably armed with the fastest car on the grid since Norris’ long-awaited first win in F1 in May, both team and driver have made errors – whether that be strategy or, in Norris’ case, a series of lacklustre starts off the line.
Norris, forever self-critical and at times too much so, is consciously aware of his previous failings but is adamant a title he insists is “still in reach” is only attainable if he is “perfect” from now to December’s finale in Abu Dhabi.
“After the first half of the season I have not performed at the level of a world champion – it is as simple as that,” he said at the Dutch Grand Prix, an event where the orange-clad fanbase are supporting his main rival Verstappen, as opposed to the team donned in papaya.
“There have been too many mistakes, and a few too many points given away. I need to be perfect to compete against the guys we are competing against, and the smallest weakness or deficit can bite you easily.”
“The championship is still in reach. I am a lot of points behind, and it is against Max, but I want to be optimistic and say there are still chances. I know it is a lot, and it is going to be a very difficult challenge, but I know how I can perform when things click and go well, so I still want to believe it is possible.”
A Norris victory this weekend at the second-shortest track on the calendar, with 105,000 Verstappen-enthused supporters across the Zandvoort sand dunes, would be a serious statement of intent. The Red Bull driver, again sceptical on Thursday about his long-term future in the sport, has dominated this race since it returned to the calendar in 2021, claiming all three victories from pole position.
But the previously unflappable Dutchman is, by his lofty standards, in the midst of a rut. He has not won in four races, his longest streak without a victory since 2020. Second-place in FP1 on Friday and only a time fifth-fastest in Friday’s second practice session will not have buoyed him heading into qualifying on Saturday.
Aside from McLaren – who bring their biggest upgrade since Miami this weekend in an attempt to steal a further march – the other team in contention are Mercedes, who’ve won three of the last four races.
George Russell, who missed out on the best win of his career in Belgium last time out due to a post-race disqualification, was fastest in the second practice session. Lewis Hamilton was third, just behind Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri. It speaks to F1 – a sport so predictable in the previous two seasons – in a refreshing period of unpredictability. As many as five drivers are in genuine contention this weekend, and that doesn’t even include the Ferrari pairing of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
But Norris, who received further backing from his team boss Andrea Stella on Friday, must rise above the competition if he is to start making serious waves – and claiming serious points. Despite his team’s terrific speed, he remains on one victory and must now show a steely ruthlessness synonymous with all world champions if the prospect of a first title win, however ambitious it seems at this stage, is to have any legs. That, and simply retaining position at the start on raceday.