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Helmut Marko sounded immediate alarms for Max Verstappen and Red Bull after Lando Norris' dominant victory at Circuit Park Zandvoort in the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix. Despite trailing in the early stages of the race, Norris overtook Verstappen and finished the race with 22 seconds to spare.
With the race victory, Norris narrowed his Championship deficit from 78 points after Spa-Francorchamps to 70 points at Zandvoort. Although securing second place was a damage control move for the Verstappen, Marko's warning serves as a wake-up call for the Milton-Keynes-based team.
The RB20 has not been the fastest car since Austria, and given McLaren's impressive pace, it will be a challenging task for Red Bull to match the MCL38. Norris' dominant victory and his pole position lap on Saturday, where he outpaced Max Verstappen by nearly four-tenths, are clear indicators of McLaren's competitive edge.
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"Norris now has the speed to catch Max in the championship," Marko said to the Dutch media after the race. "We have to find something. There is something in the pipeline, but McLaren is very fast."
McLaren's remarkable ascent continued in the Netherlands, as they narrowed their gap in the Constructors' Championship. Following Norris' victory and Oscar Piastri's fourth-place finish, they are now only 30 points behind Red Bull.
Max Verstappen's struggle with RB20 continues
The Dutch Grand Prix was not the first time Max Verstappen encountered stiffness with the RB20. From "the car doesn't turn" to 'it's not the easiest [car] to drive', the Dutchman's struggles with the car persisted.
"I'm not surprised how my feeling was in the car. I couldn't do anything. I said in the race my inputs are not translating. It's complicated to understand why that is," Verstappen said in the post-race interview. "I couldn't make the tyres work and then got passed and I just drove my own race from there."
Verstappen currently leads the Drivers' Championship with 295 points, followed by Lando Norris with 225 points. Charles Leclerc, who claimed P3 on Sunday, is in P3 with 192 points.
