Oscar Piastri won an action-packed Dutch Grand Prix as Lando Norris suffered a big title blow as an oil leak ended his race prematurely. In a race that saw three safety cars periods following three retirements, and a couple of virtual safety cars to clear up debris from clashes immediately after said safety cars, we got a mixed up finishing order.
It was a nightmare day for Ferrari, the first double DNF since the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix. Hamilton and Leclerc crashed at the same corner, but with differing levels of responsibility for their exits.
Verstappen and Hadjar completed the podium in what was a fantastic performance by the young Frenchman to further his case for rookie of the season.
Behind them, the Aston Martins both got into the points for the first time since Singapore 2022, which is a crazy stat!
Other notable finishes are Ollie Bearman, who finished 6th after starting at the back. We will get into why in a moment but great result for Bearman who breaks his 11th place streak nicely.
In all, an absorbing race with plenty of action. A great way to restart the season. Let’s get into the ratings:
1. Oscar Piastri – 8.5
Oscar drove an assured race from pole. He held the lead into Turn 1 and pulled a gap to Verstappen in the early laps before Norris got past. This buffer would disappear with the safety cars, but he wasn’t threatened by his teammate at the restarts. It looked like he had it all under control from the get-go and got his first career grand slam in the process.
2. Max Verstappen – 8.2
Max maximised in Holland. His car clearly was no match for the McLarens, but he maintained his podium finish until Lando retired and promoted him to 2nd. He wins save of the day for his lap 1 hold when going around the outside of Lando into the banked corner. Check it out if you haven’t seen it. There was a small chance at victory at the final restart with Max on softs and Piastri on hards but he couldn’t get close enough. Solid result.
3. Isack Hadjar – 9.5
Driver of the day! Phenomenal performance from Hadjar, fully deserved podium. He qualified 4th, got off the line well and held his own in 4th for much of the race. He was never too far from Verstappen and survived the restarts. Fully, fully deserved.
4. George Russell – 8.1
Mr reliable Russell! Another maximiser. Was running in 6th, for most of the first half until he was promoted to 5th after the safety period caught Ferrari and Leclerc out. Promoted to 4th after Norris retired, solid points. Job done.
5. Alex Albon – 8.9
Stunner from Albon, aided massively by a great lap 1, gaining 5 places from his 15th starting position. Took advantage of others in front of him making errors or retiring to move up to 5th. As he said in his post-race interview, “I was in 10th, finished and finished 5th” – perfectly summed up.
6. Oliver Bearman – 8.9
Great strategic race from Haas. Starting last, Ollie was stuck on the hards to go uber long, take track position in case of safety cars and pit late on to take advantage of late safety. Tick, tick and tick. Exactly how they drew it up!
7. Lance Stroll – 8.5
Lovely result for Stroll. Pitted first on lap 8, was able to gain track position at the first safety car as he stayed out, pitted again during the final safety car but also just took advantage of chaos ahead to finish 7th.
8. Fernando Alonso – 8.4
Was frustrated to have pitted a couple laps before Hamilton crashed, losing out to those around him who were able to get a cheap pitstop. But fortune turned around at the end when he did the same back. Was running 10th, inherited 9th from Norris and then got 8th after Antonelli’s penalties.
9. Yuki Tsunoda – 7.5
An ok points finish for Yuki after being knocked out of Q2 once again. Not much was seen of him really, and he was promoted due to other crashing out. Story of the race really.
10. Esteban Ocon –
Another go-long merchant! Started on hards, pitted for mediums on Lap 53 and just moved up quite efficiently to complete the points.
11. Franco Colapinto – 7.5
So close to his first points of the season for Franco – 0.5 seconds! A better performance from the Argentine, his best result of the season but hard not to look at the number of retirements as helping this cause. Briatore did come out and say it was his best performance of the year – which is positive for Franco’s long term future, he needs to get into the boss’ good books.
12. Liam Lawson – 7.3
Lawson was running in the points until coming together with Sainz at the first safety car restart. Both got a puncture and dropped a lap down. They were put back on the lead lap at the final safety car, but couldn’t get back into the points.
13. Carlos Sainz – 7.3
The other half of the Lawson / Sainz accident, and apparently the one to blame, as he got a 10-second time penalty. I think this was harsh. Carlos was far enough alongside at the point of Lawson’s oversteer moment for this to be a racing incident. It ruined both their races but it was a better showing from Carlos in Zandvoort and probably would have finished ahead of his teammate.
14. Nico Hulkenberg – 6.0
An inconspicuous weekend for Sauber in Holland. I don’t think we ever really saw them in the race. Qualified 17th and finished 15th. Couldn’t use the safety cars either.
15. Gabriel Bortoleto – 5.7
Gabby fell back in the race, which is unusual for the recent past. Again, an inconspicuous weekend for the Brazilian.
16. Kimi Antonelli – 5.2
The summer break didn’t have the intended effect on the young Italian as his rough weekends continued. A spin early in FP1 ended his session, but he recovered somewhat to qualify 11th. He moved up in the race, taking advantage of the chaos in front as well as a good overtake on Alex Albon. But then it fell apart. An extremely optimistic overtake attempt on Leclerc at the banked Turn 3 ended with a broken Ferrari and Antonelli with a 10-second penalty. This penalty pushed him out of the points at the flag.
17. Pierre Gasly – 6.5
A tricky weekend for Pierre and a rare one where he is beaten by a teammate. Finishing last on the road didn’t paint the whole picture as he was running in and around the points until the final safety car dropped him to the back.
18. Lando Norris – 7.5
Devastating result for Lando as he was hunting down his teammate for a late go at the lead and closing the gap in the championship. An oil leak caused by a chassis failure cut off his engine with 7 laps to go. He was looking the quickest McLaren during practice, but couldn’t translate that to pole in Quali. This was probably his downfall from winning the race, but the DNF could be championship-defining.
19. Charles Leclerc – 7.7
Charles was battling for a podium when he was taken out by Antonelli, ending his race. He lost out at the first safety car, caused by his teammate, but made up some spots, including a ballsy overtake over Russell, and was battling his way back up until he tangled with the Mercedes rookie. A real shame for the Ferrari driver.
20. Lewis Hamilton – 6.0
An uncharacteristic mistake from the 7-time World Champion as he ran wide at Turn 3, slid on the advertising, snapped oversteer and found himself at the scene of the accident. He was running nicely in the top DRS train behind Hadjar before the incident. A double whammy as well for Lewis is the 5-place penalty in Monza for ignoring yellow flags on his reconnaissance lap.
The Perfect Formula 