A slow start, gifting Verstappen the lead at the first turn, was the only time at which Norris’s authority in Zandvoort was questioned, but in less than 10 laps it was clear the McLaren had the pace to easily match with the Red Bull Racing car ahead.
By lap 15 he was shadowing Verstappen through the circuit’s undulating bends, and by lap 18 he was easily back into top spot.
From there the rest of the race was a cruise. Verstappen attempted to reel him back in with an early pit stop, but the McLaren was completely untroubled by the strategy, covering it on the following lap and retaining its lead.
Norris wasn’t challenged again. He took the chequered flag 22.896 seconds ahead of Verstappen to claim the biggest victory margin of the season so far, setting the fastest lap of the race on the final lap in an emphatic flourish that underscored his iron grip on the grand prix.
“I just didn’t expect our pace to be probably as good as what it was today, which is a good thing,” Norris admitted. “It’s nice to be kind of a little bit surprised by this.
“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.
“The car felt great and made my life easier for sure, so a big thanks to the team.”
With no cards left to play after his pit stop, Verstappen focused on consolidating second place, which he managed by only 2.5 secs ahead of Charles Leclerc.
“I tried to do the best I could, but at one point nothing was turning or responding anymore,” he said. “There was nothing that I could do, so once he passed, I just focused on doing my race, tried to bring it to the end in second.
“Something has been going wrong lately with the car that we need to understand and we need to of course quickly try to improve.”
The result brought Norris to 70 points off the championship lead, while McLaren is now just 30 points behind Red Bull Racing on the constructors title with nine rounds remaining.
Leclerc finished a surprisingly competitive third after a having qualified more than 0.9 secs off pole.
The Monegasque gained a place off the line to enter a battle for the podium behind George Russell and Oscar Piastri, who has swapped places at the first turn.
Bottle behind Russell in the first stint, Ferrari responded by pitting Leclerc early to undercut his way ahead, challenging Russell and Piastri to pass him late in the race.
The tactic worked. Russell pitted the following lap but rejoined the race behind Leclerc, from where he didn’t have the pace to challenge.
Piastri ran long, waited nine laps before covering Leclerc. With much fresher tyres he easily swallowed up Russell, but he used the best of his rubber catching up to the back of the Ferrari. The Australian was powerless to overcome a centimetre-perfect defensive drive, Leclerc securing an unexpected podium trophy.
“It was a really good strategy,” Leclerc said. “I did not expect to keep that third place until the end, but we did a really good job as a team. I don’t think there was anything more we could have done today.
“Yesterday we were struggling like crazy. Today we were strong. These are the kinds of things that we’ve got to work on.
“I think it’s a really good surprise; however, we’ve got to understand in order to perform more often at our best.”
Piastri finished fourth ahead of a fast-finishing Carlos Sainz, who rose five places from 10th on the grid after a long duel with Sergio Pérez that required some ambitious deep braking in the first corner to overcome.
Pérez secured sixth in a decent performance by the Mexican, though he was lucky to have been handed the place by an oddly off-colour performance from Mercedes.
Russell had headed Pérez for much of the second half of the race, but high tyre wear for the Briton prompted a late pit stop for new rubber, dropping him to seventh. The team had hoped he would have the pace to recover the place from Pérez, but he quickly ran out of grip.
His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, rose from a penalised 14th to eighth in an aggressive drive comprising two stints on the qualifying soft tyre.
Pierre Gasly scored two points for Alpine in ninth ahead of Fernando Alonso in 10th, winning a battle with Nico Hülkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll for the final point.
Thai driver Alex Albon finished 14th ahead of Esteban Ocon, Logan Sargeant, Yuki Tsunoda, Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu at the back of the field.