Lando Norris downplayed his world championship prospects despite his commanding win in the Netherlands, claiming it would be ‘stupid’ to think of overhauling Max Verstappen.

The 24-year-old Briton cut his deficit in the standings from 78 to 70 points with nine races remaining, though a rattled Verstappen said the reduction wouldn’t cause him to press the panic button.

Norris looked to defuse the growing pressure on himself, saying: ‘I have been fighting for the championship since the first race of the year and there is no sudden decision needed now to do better.

‘It is pretty stupid to think of that (the championship) at the moment. There is no point in thinking ahead. I am focused on one race at a time, so it is not a question I need to be asked every single weekend.’

Norris beat Verstappen into second place after recovering from another poor start to pass the Dutchman on lap 18. He went on to win by nearly 23 seconds in a dominant McLaren.

Lando Norris says it would be 'stupid' to think of winning the world championship currently
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Lando Norris says it would be ‘stupid’ to think of winning the world championship currently

Norris won the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday to cut his deficit to Max Verstappen to 70 points
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Norris won the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday to cut his deficit to Max Verstappen to 70 points

He said the pace of his car is 'unbelievable' and claimed he would have won without upgrades
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He said the pace of his car is ‘unbelievable’ and claimed he would have won without upgrades

‘A win is always satisfying,’ reflected Norris. ‘The pace of the car was unbelievable. I felt I would have won without the upgrades that came this weekend.

‘It is not often I have been in the lead and controlled the race in clean air. I didn’t expect it to go as well as it did but after getting down off the line and into Turn One, I was surprisingly calm, maybe because I am used to going back at the start. I looked after my tyres, and was like, “What could I do now?”

‘By lap 10, 12, or 13 I managed to catch Max and gained optimism that I could pass him on track. I had two opportunities. The first time I wasn’t close enough and the next lap I did it. I could get my head down from there.’

After failing to win his home race, Verstappen said: ‘Something has been going wrong with the car and we need to understand that quickly and improve. We know we have quite a bit of work to do.

‘This weekend was a bad weekend in general, and we need to understand why that has been the case. The last few races were not fantastic, but we don’t need to panic.

‘We are working on it, but Formula One is very complicated. There are a lot of races left.’