(Motorsport-Total.com) – Lap 53 in the Dutch Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) leads ahead of Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) and Lando Norris (McLaren). Hamilton has the oldest tires (27 laps), ahead of Antonelli (12 laps) and Norris (5 laps). And Norris has just closed a five-second gap to Antonelli within only three laps after his pit stop.
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The trio accelerates into the banked final corner at Zandvoort, and Sky commentator Sacha Roos already senses that an attack might be coming: “Norris behind, he might even get a double slipstream now, and is super close. Now it could work, now it could work for Lando Norris, with the slipstream he has and the extra boost,” he anticipates in the live broadcast.
The slipstream battle goes over the start-finish line, lap 54 begins – and when braking for turn 1 (Tarzanbocht), Antonelli seemingly brakes a moment later than Norris and moves inside. “No, no, no, no, no, no,” Roos calms down again, and the attack seems to be called off for a second or two.
Timo Glock: “He goes around the outside with …”
But co-commentator Timo Glock already senses: “He goes around the outside with …” Now Roos loses it on the microphone: “He does it, he does it, he does it, and he pulls it off! Mega overtaking maneuver by Lando Norris (…)! I think he really surprised him there. I think the Italian didn’t expect him to be that bold again.”
“He didn’t either,” Glock agrees, “because he covered the inside. I have to take another close look to see if Kimi Antonelli tried a bit to attack Lewis Hamilton or just covered inside for safety.”
It was one of the most exciting moments in a race that was not short of spectacular scenes. And one where Norris could show what he is made of. “Sorry please, but you … have to have that,” says Roos without uttering the Oliver Kahn words. “That’s right,” nods Glock.
In an era of Formula 1 history where real overtakes have become rare and opponents often overtake each other because one has more battery left than the other, Norris’ successful attack against Antonelli was a goosebumps moment. A bit like Mika Häkkinen at Spa 2000, who simply passed Michael Schumacher on the right while he was busy lapping Ricardo Zonta on the left.
How Norris experienced the Zandvoort maneuver against Antonelli
“It was a good move,” Norris grins in retrospect. “I knew I wouldn’t get many chances. With every lap I followed behind, my chances would get smaller. Then I saw Lewis defending inside, and that was my moment. I adjusted the brake balance a few clicks. I knew I had to commit for the braking, and the maneuver won me the race. Well played. I knew it had to stick, and it was maybe my only chance. I took it.”
After that, the McLaren driver didn’t let anything burn. Still in the same lap, he also passed Hamilton and thus took the lead, and his victory was never in danger again. But Norris is sure: “If I hadn’t overtaken Kimi there, I probably wouldn’t have won.”
“I think I maximized my race today,” he analyzes. “First, I made life hard for myself with a bad start. We have to understand how that happened. But we achieved what we set out to do, which was to win the race.”
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Zandvoort: Driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team
Norris strikes an unusually confident tone for him when he says: “I know what a good job I do behind the wheel. I’m not someone who likes to talk about himself – usually quite the opposite. But today I have to praise myself once. For feeling like I did a better job than everyone else. That can also make the difference.”
“Today was a day when I made many good decisions. From strategy to tire conservation, knowing exactly when my moments are, when it counts, when I have to back off a bit. There’s a lot going on in the cockpit. It’s not like you go full throttle every lap. But the maneuver was the decisive moment, and that brought me the win,” explains the 26-year-old.
Special praise from McLaren team principal Andrea Stella
A performance that deserves special praise from Andrea Stella. The McLaren team principal does not hold back in showering praise on the Budapest and now Zandvoort winner: “Lando definitely shows a higher level of determination when driving now. I think the overtaking maneuver against Antonelli today is a very good example of that. He shows more confidence.”
“And the interesting thing – and I quite like that – is that confidence doesn’t always manifest itself in being the most aggressive. Sometimes confidence shows in saying: ‘You know what, I’m not going to engage in this fight now because I might come off worse. It’s a very long race. We’ll see each other at the end of the race.’”
“It’s this trust in your own abilities, in your own strength, that I quite like. And that means sometimes you’re even the one who holds back when the situation gets too risky. The motto being: I want to stay in this race.”
Stella emphasizes: “We must not forget that in the last two races he won, he did not defend his pole position. At the end of the first lap, he was only in second place. But I neither heard nor perceived that his confidence had somehow diminished because of that. He knew he was fast and simply prepared his opportunity to then play out his competitiveness.”
“I therefore think determination and confidence are probably the two qualities he has improved the most on – if we put aside the technical and operational aspects,” says the McLaren team principal.
Norris, reigning Formula 1 world champion, still has a long way to go if he wants to successfully defend his 2025 title. In the drivers’ championship, despite the wins in Budapest and Zandvoort, after twelve of 23 planned Grands Prix he is in fourth place, 83 points behind leader Antonelli.
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