F1 Correspondent in ZandvoortPublished14 minutes agoLando Norris and McLaren beat Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli to take a masterful strategic victory in a compelling Dutch Grand Prix.
A topsy-turvy race started amid chaos as Max Verstappen crashed his Red Bull at high speed on a damp track at the end of the first lap, leading to a red flag.
Antonelli took the lead from Norris at the restart, but through two pit stops, Norris built a tyre offset to fight back and pass Antonelli for the win.
Lewis Hamilton was leading the race at the time, just ahead of the battling pair, out of sync on his pit stops, but Norris went past him further around the same lap to take the lead on track.
A late virtual safety car led to some team orders controversy at Mercedes as George Russell was ordered to let Antonelli past into second place, leaving him vulnerable to Hamilton.
But Russell, with help from a further late virtual safety car to allow marshals to recover debris on track, held Hamilton off to take the final podium position.
Further back, Fernando Alonso earned Aston Martin-Honda their first points since the incident-strewn Monaco race with an excellent drive on a one-stop strategy to ninth place.
The key stories of the first race after Formula 1's summer break were:
Antonelli tightening his grip on the title by beating both his closest rivals.
Team orders unhappiness at both Mercedes and Ferrari
Further evidence that Aston Martin are making progress at last.
Image source, ReutersImage caption, Home driver Max Verstappen crashed out of the grand prix early on
Antonelli looked to have taken control of the race as he cycled from third on the initial grid to the lead after two standing starts punctuated by a long delay because of Verstappen's crash.
The Italian passed Russell for second behind pole-sitter Norris at the first start as the Briton was slowed by the inside of the grid being damper than the outside after a shower of rain.
But the race was stopped after Verstappen had an almighty accident at the end of the first lap.
Running too low through the flat-out final corner, Verstappen's inside wheels caught the wet painted line and he lost the rear, sending him nose first into the outside wall.
Behind him, Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto also lost control, but somehow he spun while staying on the track and was able to resume.
Verstappen was unhurt and climbed out with no problems as the field reformed in the pits while the track was cleared.
At the restart, the track now dry after a period of sunshine, Antonelli got the jump on Norris and moved into the lead.
Given his dominance at times this year, and the comfortable victory Russell had taken over Norris in the sprint on Saturday, that appeared to put the championship leader in control of the race.
The pair made their first pit stops together on lap 21, resuming in second and third place behind Hamilton, who delayed his stop by a further four laps.
But in the second stint, Norris came into his own. He closed in on Antonelli initially, and let the gap to within two seconds by the time the Mercedes driver made his second pit stop on lap 40.
This was Norris' chance. McLaren waited a further seven laps to make his stop and he rejoined only 4.8 seconds behind the Mercedes.
The pair closed on Hamilton together and the three were running nose to tail by lap 52. Two laps later, Antonelli feinted a move down the inside of Hamilton, but it didn't come off, and it left a space for Norris to leave his braking as late as possible on the clean outside line.
From there, he sailed around the outside of the Mercedes around the long, banked first corner, known as Tarzan, and set off after the Ferrari.
An error by Hamilton through Turn 10 later around the lap gave Norris a run out of the corner, and he drove past the Ferrari on the outside line into the chicane that followed.
That was the race won by Norris, even if there was a bit of jeopardy as McLaren chose not to pit under the VSC while all those bar Russell behind him did, but in the end he had more than enough in hand.
More to follow.
