
Oscar Piastri scored an important race victory at Zandvoort as his main championship rival and teammate Lando Norris was forced to retire with a mechanical issue in the McLaren.
The home fan favourite Max Verstappen finished in second position for Red Bull and yet Isack Hadjar achieved his first podium result in Formula 1 with an impressive third place for Racing Bulls. The late non-finish from Norris promoted both Verstappen and Hadjar to the podium places.
Piastri and Norris looked set to score a straightforward fifth consecutive 1-2 finish for McLaren after Oscar kept his lead into Turn 1 with Lando recovering the position he lost to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
But on lap 65 of 72 Norris started reporting smoke from the cockpit before parking his McLaren MCL39 by the side of the track.
After the third safety car, Piastri led Verstappen home while Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadfar scored a spectacular maiden Formula 1 podium.
Before the start McLaren team boss Andrea Stella warned of a powerful weapon Red Bull had at its disposal in the shape of a fresh set of soft tyres, and Verstappen immediately proved it was not just chatter to talk up the competition.
At the start, Max powered on by the orange wave of home support, went around the outside of Norris into Turn 1 aka Tarzan. Verstappen went wide on the exit, but somehow still managed to make the move stick despite getting out of shape through Turns 2 and 3.
Verstappen’s overtake in the slower Red Bull was exactly what leader Piastri wanted to see, as he quickly went four seconds clear until Norris managed to challenge around the outside of Turn 1 on lap 9.
Norris chased towards Piastri while drivers were informed of the imminent threat of light rain around the windy seaside circuit, bringing the gap down to three seconds when Piastri started reporting drops of rain on lap 15.
At that point Verstappen had already gone passed 12 seconds as his powerful weapon was not working, the immediate benefit of his softer tyres turning into a longer-term tyre wear disadvantage.
That was reflected by medium-starting Racing Bulls driver Hadjar keeping Verstappen within reach as the impressive rookie kept a train with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Mercedes driver George Russell and the second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton.
That three drivers only lasted until lap 24, when Hamilton crashed out at the exit of the high-banked Turn 3, bringing out a full safety car.
Leclerc ended up a victim of his teammate’s mistake, too, as he had just made his first pitstop under green-flag conditions while the other frontrunners completed a cheaper stop, with Russell coming out ahead in fifth.
The order on the lap 26 restart was Piastri, Norris, Verstappen, Hadjar, Russell and Leclerc, with Verstappen switching to the mediums while every other car in the field picked the hard Pirellis.
On the fourth lap of green running Hadjar’s teammate Liam Lawson and Williams driver Carlos Sainz came together, with the pair having to dive back into the pits with damage. Sainz was not impressed, calling the Lawson “so stupid”, but it was Carlos who had a 10-second penalty.
A brief virtual safety car was called to remove debris from the race track on the main straight, before the on-track drama continued at the front.
On lap 33 Leclerc made a dramatic lunge on Russell to take fifth, appearing to have cut the apex of Turn 3 to barge his way past.
At the front it was looking good for McLaren, with Piastri controlling a two-second lead to Norris, who was told by his race engineer to try and overtake his teammate in the fear of any strategic options.
Hadjar continued shadowing Verstappen for a maiden podium spot, with the Racing Bulls man on a harder-tyre compound that he hoped would pay off towards the end of the race.
With Leclerc’s overtake being investigated after the race, Mercedes tried a different tactic to put pressure on the Ferrari driver. It first issued team orders to let Antonelli past Russell, and then brought Kimi in for an aggressive second stop on soft tyres.
How that would have worked out compared to Russell we will never know, as Leclerc covered Antonelli’s stop on the following lap and the pair came to contact a few corners later, with Antonelli tagging Leclerc into a race-ending spin in Turn 3 and earning himself a 10-second penalty.
Under the resulting safety car most of the field came in to switch to a fresh set of tyres for the 15-lap dash to the chequered flag. Piastri and Norris picked up fresh hards while Verstappen went to used softs, but the Red Bull driver could not benefit enough to put Norris under threat.
But on lap 65 Norris suffered a dramatic mechanical failure on his McLarene, in a harsh blow to his title hopes. Norris held his head in his hands on the grassy knoll overlooking the Zandvoort circuit as he witnessed Piastri scoring his seventh win of the 2025 season.
Verstappen had nothing for Piastri on the final restart and settled for second on home ground, narrowly ahead of impressive Hadjar, who grabbed a breakthrough podium after a faultless weekend that saw him qualify fourth.
Russell was third ahead of Alex Albon, who recovered from a poor qualifying with an excellent comeback drive.
Oliver Bearman also recovered from a pitlane start to take an unexpected sixth position, beating Aston Martin duo Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.
Yuki Tsunoda was promoted into the points, with Esteban Ocon claiming the final point in P10 for Haas.
Piastri now heads to next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix in Monza with a 34-point lead. It will be fascinating how Lando Norris can recover following this non-finish at Zandvoort.

Dutch Grand Prix, race results:
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:38:29.849
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +1.271s
3 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +3.233s
4 George Russell Mercedes +5.654s
5 Alexander Albon Williams +6.327s
6 Oliver Bearman Haas +9.044s
7 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +9.497s
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +11.709s
9 Yuki Tsunoda Racing Bulls +13.597s
10 Esteban Ocon Haas +14.063s
11 Franco Colapinto Alpine +14.511s
12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +17.063s
13 Carlos Sainz Williams +17.376s
14 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +19.725s
15 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +21.565s
16 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +22.029s
17 Pierre Gasly Alpine +23.629s
Lando Norris McLaren DNF
Chalres Leclerc Ferrari DNF
Lewis Hamilton Ferrari DNF