Christian Horner gives away Red Bull concern as Lando Norris has F1 champions flapping
Max Verstappen and Red Bull were powerless to stop Lando Norris winning the Dutch Grand Prix at a canter as McLaren again closed the gap in the constructors' championship
McLaren are piling on the pressure and the cracks are starting to show at Red Bull.
Hopes that a reset over the summer break would stop the rot were dashed as Lando Norris did the same thing at Zandvoort. Too much wheelspin on the line allowed Max Verstappen the opportunity to get the Dutch fans roaring as he took an early lead.
But he never sounded flustered over the radio and made it look easy as, on lap 18, he wrestled control of the race back from the championship leader. As Verstappen moaned over the radio about his car, Norris had full confidence in the machine under him.
He was nearly 23 second ahead of the Dutchman as he rubber-stamped only his second career F1 victory, but one which has Red Bull, perhaps for the first time, truly concerned. Verstappen had a 78-point advantage over Norris in the drivers' standings before the weekend and looked entirely comfortable in his title defence.
Red Bull's advantage in the constructors' championship was slimmer with Sergio Perez floundering but still Christian Horner always had an air of confidence about him. That had gone as he declared the McLaren cars "in a different league".
Perez finished down in sixth while Oscar Piastri was fourth as the gap to Red Bull shrank again to just 30 points. Horner looked concerned as he admitted: "With the pace that they had today, nothing is secure. We still have a comfortable lead in the drivers', but in the constructors' another chunk of points has come off again today."
Verstappen did at least limit the damage by finishing second which he said was the best he could have done. He remains 70 points clear of Norris but hasn't won any of the last five races for the first time since 2020. The Dutchman avoided answering when asked if this Red Bull car is the most difficult he has ever had to drive.
But the wry smile on his face said it all as he glumly conceded: "It's very complicated to understand how we can fix it." Still, Red Bull's weekend wasn't anywhere near as bad as what Mercedes endured. Lewis Hamilton started 14th after an embarrassing early exit in qualifying and then a penalty for impeding Perez.
He climbed up to eighth, one place behind team-mate George Russell who had lined up fourth on the grid but spent his afternoon going in the wrong direction. Having crossed the line first and second in the last race at Spa, albeit before Russell was disqualified, everyone involved was baffled about how things went so wrong. Boss Toto Wolff said: "That was really a totally off weekend, and very surprising."
Mercedes aren't in the title fight but Norris and McLaren well and truly are with nine races still to go. And if they win again at Monza next week, Red Bull really will be at panic stations.
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