Is Norris now Antonelli's biggest title threat?

While he won neither of the race formats across the Zandvoort Sprint weekend, Kimi Antonelli increased his overall world championship lead at the Dutch Grand Prix as Formula 1 returned from its summer break. <p>The Mercedes driver now leads both team-mate George Russell and Ferrari rival Lewis Hamilton by 59 points, the second-largest advantage Antonelli has enjoyed at the top of the Drivers' Championship so far this season.</p><p>But Antonelli's buffer over the driver who now occupies fourth place in the standings reduced by a further eight points overall after a second successive Grand Prix win for reigning champion Lando Norris, who is now 83 points off the pace.</p><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.skysports.com/f1/standings">F1 2026 standings</a> | <a href="https://www.skysports.com/f1/schedule-results">F1 2026 calendar</a> | <a href="https://www.skysports.com/f1/live-blog/12433/12466779/f1-news-rumours-and-gossip-formula-1-latest-updates-on-teams-driver-transfer-market-and-contracts">F1 Gossip Column</a></strong></li><li><a href="https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/ContentPromo" target="_blank"><strong>Download the Sky Sports app for expert analysis, best video & more</strong></a><strong>\ud83d\udcf1</strong></li><li><strong>Not got Sky? </strong><a href="https://www.sky.com/tv/sports?dcmp=Ilc_skysports_nc_articlelink" target="_blank"><strong>Latest Sky Sports deals</strong></a><strong> or </strong><a href="http://www.nowtv.com/membership/watch-sky-sports?DCMP=ilc_skysports_nc_articlelink" target="_blank"><strong>stream F1 with no contract</strong></a> <strong>\ud83d\udcfa</strong></li></ul><p>Norris became just the second driver after Antonelli to claim consecutive wins this season, with the McLaren driver's Zandvoort triumph coming after he overtook the championship leader on track. Antonelli had initially reclaimed the lead from Norris at the restart following the red flag triggered by Max Verstappen's heavy lap-one crash.</p><p>Yet does the result mean that Norris' hopes of retaining his world title, which seemed all-but over just a few races ago before McLaren brought a notable car upgrade to Budapest, are firmly back on?</p><widget id="1"></widget><h3>Just how well is Norris driving?</h3><p>Four weeks on from a supreme showing at the Hungarian Grand Prix, when he claimed the first Grand Prix pole and win of his world title defence, Norris was impressive again throughout the Zandvoort weekend on the sport's return to action.</p><p>But he was initially left frustrated on Saturday after finishing third in the Sprint.</p><p>Norris' concern centred on McLaren's long-run pace after Charles Leclerc overtook him with six laps remaining in the shorter-form race. The Ferrari driver was running on soft tyres that even he had expected to be past their best by that stage, making his ability to pull clear of Norris' medium-shod McLaren all the more concerning.</p><p>Norris later confirmed McLaren's single-lap pace was certainly strong by taking pole position for the main Grand Prix, but his 'celebrations' in parc ferme were noticeably muted.</p> <widget id="2"></widget><p>Saturday's frustration made the nature of his win on Sunday all the sweeter.</p><p>Asked how highly he rated his 13th career triumph, Norris said: "Pretty high just from a point of just very well fought in many ways.</p><p>"More than that is, you know, the turnaround from yesterday to today. I was pretty disappointed yesterday. It kind of took a little bit of the fire out of me, seeing how much we struggled in the Sprint.</p><p>"I know it's just a Sprint, but, you know, every point matters and we just really didn't have the pace. I didn't have that something that gave me life inside the car.</p><p>"Last night we worked very, very hard. I spent a lot of time with my engineers to kind of understand what we could do better today, how to push more, save the tyres more, how to do everything in a better way than I've done and better than everyone else. And I certainly believe I did that today."</p> <widget id="3"></widget><p>Having taken time to adapt to the complexities of F1's new regulations, and for McLaren to get on top of car and power-unit performance, Norris now feels back in a place to "make a difference".</p><p>"Of course I'm never one to over-talk about myself, normally always the complete opposite," he said.</p><p>"But for once I would give myself a little bit of credit that I feel like I'm doing a better job than everyone, and I think that can also make a difference."</p><p>Team principal Andrea Stella said after Sunday's race that Norris is "driving and operating at a very high level in absolute sense in relation to a Formula 1 world champion".</p><p>Stella added: "Lando is definitely now expressing a higher level of assertiveness as he drives. The manoeuvre on Antonelli is a really good demonstration of that.</p><p>"He's demonstrating more self confidence and the self-confidence sometimes is not demonstrated by being the most aggressive.</p><p>"Sometimes you are self-confident when you think like, 'you know what, I'm not going to have a fight now because I may lose in this fight, it's a very long race. See you at the end of the race'."</p> <widget id="5"></widget><h3>Does Norris now have the quickest car?</h3><p>Although Antonelli, who turns 20 on Tuesday, has continued to barely put a foot wrong in the championship-leading Mercedes despite his inexperience, the team's early-season advantage over McLaren and Ferrari has been steadily eroded. Mercedes' relative lack of recent upgrades has allowed both rivals to close the gap, with McLaren in particular making significant gains in recent races.</p><p><em>Sky Sports F1's</em> Nico Rosberg believes Zandvoort showed that the Norris-McLaren combination is now the one to beat on track.</p><p>"A world champion's drive by Lando," said Rosberg, the 2016 world champion.</p><p>"Who would have thought, in Melbourne McLaren were nine tenths behind Mercedes and now Lan...

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