Winner McLaren’s Australian driver Oscar Piastri celebrates on the rostrum following the Method One Dutch Grand Prix at The Circuit Zandvoort, western Netherlands, on August 31, 2025. (Picture by JOHN THYS / AFP)
Oscar Piastri powered to victory at an incident-packed F1 Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday, with residence favourite Max Verstappen claiming second place as Piastri’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris suffered a dramatic breakdown late within the race.
Piastri led from pole to checkered flag on the Zandvoort circuit in a race that noticed the protection automobile deployed thrice to stretch his lead over Norris to 34 factors within the championship race.
READ: F1 stress builds as teammates Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris resume title struggle
Racing Bulls’ 20-year-old French rookie Isack Hadjar completed third to develop into the fifth youngest podium finisher of all time.
It was Piastri’s sixth Grand Prix victory of the season and cemented the Australian’s standing as the person to catch on this yr’s drivers’ championship.
“I felt like I used to be in command of that one and simply used the tempo once I wanted to,” mentioned Piastri.
“If we are able to hold it working then that’d be nice however there’s an extended solution to go but and we hold doing it one race at a time,” added the Australian.
An exhilarating begin noticed Verstappen, who began third on the grid, overtake Norris earlier than briefly shedding management of his Pink Bull.
READ: F1: Lando Norris relishes battle with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri
To the cheers of tens of hundreds of his “Orange Military” followers, Verstappen recovered brilliantly to settle in behind Piastri, who obtained off to a clear begin.
However the sooner race tempo of the McLaren shortly informed and Norris handed the Dutchman on his left-hand facet in lap 9 to revive the one-two for the papaya crew.
The large unknown within the run-up to the race had been the climate on the famously unpredictable circuit only a stone’s throw from the North Coastline.
The primary rain started to fall round lap 15 of 72 and simply 10 laps later, claimed its first sufferer, as seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton slid his Ferrari off the monitor into the obstacles.
“I’m so sorry guys,” mentioned an unharmed Hamilton, who on the final Grand Prix had described himself as a “utterly ineffective” driver who ought to be changed.
READ: F1: Oscar Piastri has confidence in his title shot
The protection automobile deployment bunched up the sector once more however Piastri held off his decided teammate Norris, who in flip stored Verstappen at bay in third.
Behind the front-runners, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc pulled off a unprecedented overtaking manoeuvre on George Russell from Mercedes.
‘Let’s get Oscar’
With the rain stopped and most drivers on contemporary tyres, McLaren engineers on the Norris facet of the storage informed their man “let’s go get Oscar”.
Since Zandvoort returned to the Method One circuit in 2021, the driving force who began on pole has gained each time, the monitor notoriously tough for overtaking.
And Norris struggled to get shut sufficient to his teammate Piastri, who stored a sometimes cool head to provide stable, error-free laps.
READ: F1: Piastri holds off Norris at Belgian Grand Prix, extends title lead
However with 18 laps to go, there was extra drama as Leclerc and Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli touched wheels throughout an overtaking manoeuvre, sending the Ferrari spinning into the obstacles to finish a catastrophic weekend for the scuderia.
With the vehicles bunched up once more after the protection automobile, Piastri pulled out his quickest lap when it mattered to take management of the race as soon as extra.
Then with solely six laps to go, Norris reported smoke in his cockpit, instantly crawling to a halt, his race over in heartbreaking vogue.
That left Piastri to carry off a last-ditch problem by Verstappen within the closing laps to take the checkered flag.
A delighted Hadjar jumped into his crew’s arms on the finish of the race earlier than climbing onto the rostrum for the primary time.
“This was all the time the goal since I used to be a child. So this is step one, my first podium and hopefully far more,” he mentioned.
The Grand Prix circus subsequent strikes to Monza in Italy on September 7 when the Ferrari followers can be out in numbers, hoping for a greater weekend for the crew.
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However their probabilities of a much-needed pick-me-up had been hit when Hamilton obtained a five-place grid penalty for Monza for failing to decelerate in a yellow flag zone on the best way to the grid.
