Oscar Piastri has taken a victory in a hugely dramatic Dutch Grand Prix that saw McLaren teammate Lando Norris retire from the race due to a mechanical failure in the closing stages, marking a potentially seismic moment in the championship battle.
Piastri had made a good start from pole when the race got underway, the Australian going on to build a lead from Max Verstappen after the Red Bull had overtaken Norris early on in Lap 1. Norris, however, went on to retake the position and the pair settled into a 1-2 formation.
The race then faced a potential turn when the Safety Car was deployed after Lewis Hamilton hit the barriers on Lap 23, leading to a flurry of action in the pits. McLaren double-stacked their drivers and despite a slight delay for Norris, both cars maintained position.
Norris continued his chase of his team mate from there and – despite a second Safety Car after a collision between Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli that put the Ferrari out of the race – the fight looked to still be open as the race entered into its final stages.
However, everything changed when smoke started to emerge from Norris’ McLaren with just a few laps to go, forcing him to retire at the side of the track.
A Safety Car phase played out which saw Piastri hold onto P1 from Verstappen in P2, and rounding out the top three is a first time podium sitter, Isack Hadjar!
The full top 10 are- P1: Piastri, P2: Verstappen, P3: Hadjar, P4: Russell, P5: Albon, P6: Bearman, P7: Stroll, P8: Alonso, P9: Tsunoda and P10: Ocon.
What a result for Piastri! His first grand slam aswell and he done it in a mighty fashion! This is exactly how he would want his second half of the season to start!
As for Norris, very gutting as he was edging closer to catching Piastri, he will be wanting to move onto the next race weekend.
A good result for Verstappen! P2 at his home Grand Prix, I think that was the best he was going to get, but he will be happy with that result.
As for Tsunoda, he managed to get in the points in P9, so a semi decent result.
Now the star of the show, Isack Hadjar, he started P4 and finished P3, the Frenchmans very first podium in his rookie season! Thoroughly deserved, if I do say so myself. He should be very proud of how far his come this season already.
A good result for Russell, P4 for him, not a bad result, shame he couldn’t get on the podium, but still a very good result. As for Antonelli it was a race to forget after he tangled with Leclerc and his race was basically over from there as he finished 16th.
P5 for Albon! A great result for Williams, a good chunk of points for the team which was needed as the mid-field battle is heating up!
Double points for Haas! P6 for Bearman which is his career best finish and Ocon finished in P10, a great result for the team.
Double points for Aston Martin too! P7 for Stroll, and P8 for Alonso, quite a good weekend for the team, they’ve had some good pace this weekend will be interesting to see if they can carry it on.
A weekend to forget for Ferrari, a double DNF which is unfortunate as they looked like they had pace this weekend too, they will be looking forward to the weekend as its their home Grand Prix.
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