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Laurence Edmondson, F1 Editor
Red Bull boss Christian Horner has said they are lucky that rival McLaren made a slow start to the season after Lando Norris dominated the Dutch Grand Prix to move closer to Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship on Sunday.
Norris beat Verstappen by 22 seconds at Zandvoort to close the gap in the drivers’ championship to 70 points while McLaren narrowed the deficit in the constructors’ championship to just 30 points.
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It was Norris’s second win of the season and McLaren’s third, but the the British driver missed out on opportunities in Canada, Spain and Great Britain that could have left both title races much closer.
McLaren also struggled for performance relative to Red Bull at the opening five races before Norris took his first career victory in Miami in May.
“We’re lucky that they underperformed at the start of the year, so we’ve got a 70-point buffer but that can diminish pretty quickly,” Horner said. “It’s remarkable that that’s only Lando’s second win in that car.
“He’s driving well, he’s finding confidence. The pressure is on us to respond.
“We’re used to being in championship fights over the years, we’ll dig deep and we’re going to fight with everything we’ve got over the remaining races.”
The Red Bull team principal agreed with Norris’ assertion that McLaren now has the fastest car in F1, and said the pressure was on his team to fight back.
“McLaren are setting the benchmark now. That’s clear in terms of pace. They’ve been that the last couple of races. Certainly in Hungary they were very competitive. Spa it was Mercedes,” Horner said.
“Here, Lando in particular was very, very strong. Definitely they have the fastest car at the moment.
“We have to respond to that. It’s not rocket science, there’s no silver bullets in this business, it’s a matter of understanding the problem, addressing the problem and then implementing fixes to it.”
Horner said Red Bull could not afford repeats of their Dutch Grand Prix performance at the remaining nine rounds of the season.
“Based on today’s performance, if it was like that at the next nine races, yes it would be very difficult,” Horner said. “But it’s only the fourth time this year that Max’s points lead has reduced.
“It’s only Lando’s second win, but we know we have to find performance. So we were 78 points, now we’re 70 ahead. We want to make sure that we extend the lead, not see it continue to diminish.”