"He just won by 15+ secs": Lando Norris gets a nod from IndyCar frontrunner

IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin was impressed with McLaren driver Lando Norris after the latter won the Dutch Grand Prix by over 20 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen. The British driver was the one to beat on the weekend as he topped the qualifying session and took pole position by over three and a half tenths of a second from the Red Bull home favorite.

The three-time world champion Verstappen did get the jump on Norris off the line and led for 15 laps before he was overtaken. Norris was faster on both medium and hard tires and was able to pull away and extend gaps from Verstappen quite easily.

The Kiwi IndyCar racer McLaughlin had previously called Norris a 'Top 3' driver in F1 and when he was asked if he still believed that, he replied on his X (formerly Twitter) account and said:

"He just won by 15+ secs."

Speaking with Sky Sports after the race, Lando Norris was asked if he believed that he was in the title fight against Max Verstappen in the 2024 season so far to which he said:

"I've been fighting for it since the first race of the year. There's no sudden decision of 'Now I need to do better'. I've been working hard the whole year. I'm still 70 points behind Max, so it's pretty stupid to think of anything at the minute."

"I am taking it one race at a time. There's no point thinking about the rest. I don't care at the minute. It's not a question I need to get asked every single weekend," the McLaren driver added.

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Lando Norris analyzes his second race win in F1

In his post-race press conference, Lando Norris said that he was "satisfied" after he won the second race win of his career and first since the Miami GP earlier in the season.

"A win is always satisfying, so very good. Obviously, didn't start in the most optimistic way, but the pace was unbelievable from the beginning and I could go with Max quite happily at the start. I just didn't expect our pace to be probably as good as what it was today, which is a good thing," Lando Norris said.

"It's nice to be kind of a little bit surprised by this. And as soon as I got ahead, it was quite straightforward. I could push. I had good confidence to push the whole race, save the tyres a little bit, but just get in a good rhythm and go from there. So the car felt amazing," the 24-year-old added.

After the Dutch GP, Norris has slashed eight points from Max Verstappen's lead in the Drivers' Championship, which currently stands at 70 points, with nine races and three Sprints remaining in the 2024 season.