Norris wins final Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort for second straight F1 victory
NXTbets Pro | Published On: August 23, 2026
Norris wins at Zandvoort
Lando Norris won the final Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort from pole position, and he did it in a race that kept turning in McLaren’s favor after a hard-fought restart and a late surge to the front. The victory was Norris’s second straight win of the season and his first at a circuit that had no room for mistakes once the track changed and the strategy tightened. Norris handled the pressure at the end, then pulled clear enough to leave no doubt about the result. He crossed the line 11.536 seconds ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and gave McLaren another major result in a race that carried added weight because it was the final Formula 1 event at Zandvoort. Norris started from pole and finished the job after a day that asked him to recover, reset and attack again when the chance arrived.
Zandvoort crash reshapes race
Max Verstappen’s crash at the damp final corner changed the race and brought out a red flag, with Verstappen walking away unhurt after the incident. The stoppage reset the order and set up a new fight at the front, and Antonelli took full advantage after the restart when he passed Norris and led for much of the race. That move put McLaren under real pressure for a stretch, and Norris had to wait for the right moment instead of forcing the issue too early. He found it on lap 54, when he went around Antonelli with an outside move at Turn 1 and reclaimed the lead in decisive fashion. From there, Norris controlled the race to the finish, while Antonelli had to settle for second after spending much of the day in command. The sequence fit the shape of the race at Zandvoort, where the damp conditions, the red flag and the restart gave drivers a short window to change the outcome. Norris used that window better than anyone else once the race settled again.
Mercedes takes double podium
Mercedes still left Zandvoort with a double podium, as Antonelli finished second and George Russell came home third. The team also made a late call that shaped the order, ordering Russell to let Antonelli back through after a late Virtual Safety Car. That decision kept Antonelli in second and Russell in third, and it locked in the 2-3 finish for Mercedes behind Norris. For Norris, the result left him fourth in the championship standings and 83 points behind Antonelli, a gap that reflects both the strength of the front-runners and the work still ahead if McLaren wants to turn race wins into a title chase. Norris was blunt about that challenge after the race. He said he and McLaren did not have the car he needed to fight for a championship, and he pointed to slow-speed corners as the team’s biggest weakness. He also said fixing that area could let him win every remaining race and chase down Antonelli. The words matched the form he showed at Zandvoort, where he recovered from the restart, retook the lead and closed the day with another statement win.
