ZANDVOORT, Netherlands -- Lando Norris ' comfortable Dutch Grand Prix win was a clear sign that Max Verstappen does not have the 2024 Formula One world championship in the bag, regardless of what the standings might look like. Norris' second F1 win reduced Verstappen's title lead from 78 points to 70 with nine races to spare. In any other situation, that would be an easy championship to write off, given Verstappen's incredible talent and ability to maximise results from a tricky Red Bull car.
But the nature of Norris' 22-second win -- a country mile in F1 terms -- underlined how much F1's competitive order has changed since the early races of this season. McLaren is now clearly the team to beat and has a car to take points away from Verstappen at every remaining event. Norris was coy on Sunday evening when asked about his title chances.
"I've been fighting for the championship since the first race of the year," he said. "I've been working hard the whole year and I'm still 70 points behind Max, so it's pretty stupid to think of anything at the minute. I just take one race at a time and just keep doing what I'm doing now because there's no point to think ahead and think of the rest.
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