Race Report: Piastri wins Dutch GP as Norris DNF’s

Formula 1 returned from summer break at Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix with Oscar Piastri converting pole to victory ahead of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar. Lando Norris was left pointless with a DNF that cost him serious points in the driver’s championship.

The race was an eventful affair with quite a bit of carbon fiber with several incidents, safety car sessions, virtual safety car sessions and a 7-time champion in the wall.

Win

A win for Oscar Piastri who opens a wide gap in the driver’s championship with his victory. A great drive and managed race from Oscar. He was ever so slightly off pace from Lando leading up to qualifying but then put it all together for pole and the win. Could this be the defining moment in the 2025 driver’s championship with a 34-point delta as we head to Monza?

A big win for Isack Hadjar who secured his first podium in F1 with a brilliant P4 qualifying effort. He held on to P4 for most of the race and inherited the podium with Lando’s DNF. The podium was a bit of luck but if you consider his holding P4 against strong opponents such as George Russell and Charles Leclerc, it wasn’t really that much luck at all. HE earned that spot with a terrific drive and a DNF is always a possibility, he drove brilliantly to take advantage of it. Also consider the issues he had on Friday that left very little running time.

A win for Alex Albon who struggled with tire performance windows all weekend long but making up five places at the start always kept him in contention for a points finish nd he claimed P5 with Lando’s DNF.

A win for Haas F1’s Ollie Bearman who started at the back and made his way up to P6 with a terrific drive from the rookie. His pace and tire management was good, the team got the strategy right and he proves that Hadjar isn’t the only rookie to keep your eye on.

A win for Aston Martin with two cars in the points. Fernando Alonso was frustrated with the team strategy and called for something different. They gave him fresh tires and he scythed his way through slower cars to claim P8. For Lance, he had two crashes over the weekend but managed to stay out of trouble for a points finish in P7.

For Red Bull, it was a win with Max Verstappen in P2, Isack Hadjar in P3 and even Yuki Tsunoda in the points in P9. A shame about the incident between Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson or he may have made it four Red Bulls in the points.

Fail

A fail for McLaren and Lando Norris for such a critical failure with a very high cost to Lando’s driver’s championship title bid.

A big fail for Ferrari with Lewis Hamilton crashing and Charles Leclerc being crashed into that saw a dual DNF for the team. A miserable weekend made worse by Lewis’s crash and Charles being punted out of race by Kimi Antonelli.

A fail for Mercedes who saw George Russell off the podium. The team were swapping George for Kimi while Kimi was making mistakes and gained a total of 15s in penalties for causing crash and speeding in pit lane. A ragged weekend for the team.

Not a great weekend for Sauber or Alpine with both drivers for each team out of the points.

WTH

Not sure what is going on with Sky sports of late. Weaving a color commentary narrative isn’t easy but manufacturing the narratives to create a smooth, authoritative delivery style even though the narrative isn’t really what is happening on track is starting to grind on me. Saying someone missed the apex or was off the line and it cost him four tenths when the driver wasn’t toff the line and didn’t lose four tenths is becoming an issue for me personally.

MARIO ISOLA – PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT

“Despite earlier predictions to the contrary, this Grand Prix was unpredictable right to the end, especially because of the many neutralisations following crashes and retirements. Piastri won not just because he had a very good car, but also because he perfectly managed all the crucial moments, especially the three restarts after the Safety Car periods.

“As for the tyres, the most positive aspect to emerge from this weekend is that, even though we brought a softer trio of dry weather compounds here than last year, all three of them proved to be competitive in the race, as can be seen from the way the mileage was divided between them (as mentioned above). The Hard did the bulk of the work, delivering a good level of performance over very long stints, for example from the two Haas drivers who covered over two thirds of the race on one set of C2s. This compound actually behaved better than it had done in the three free practice sessions, so that the drivers were able to push hard immediately after the restarts. Those like the McLaren and Aston Martin drivers who had been able to save both sets for the race were thus able to benefit from this. As for the Medium and Soft, their performance was pretty similar, which is important, especially in the case of the softer of the two.

“Now we move on to Pirelli’s home Grand Prix where we will celebrate with all the fans the milestone we reached today, namely 500 Formula 1 Grand Prix participations, making us the tyre supplier with the most appearances in motor racing’s blue riband category. It is a source of pride and the result of the passion, expertise and commitment demonstrated by so many men and women working at Pirelli since the 1950s. We will start counting again from Monza!”

Dutch GP Results: