Oscar Piastri on Sunday powered to victory at an incident-packed Dutch Formula One Grand Prix, with home favorite Max Verstappen claiming second place as Piastri’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris had a dramatic breakdown late in the race.
Piastri led from pole to checkered flag at the Zandvoort circuit in a race that saw the safety car deployed three times to stretch his lead over Norris to 34 points in the championship race.
Racing Bulls’ 20-year-old French rookie Isack Hadjar finished third to become the fifth-youngest podium finisher of all time.
Photo: AFP
It was Piastri’s sixth Grand Prix victory of the season and cemented the Australian’s status as the man to catch in this year’s drivers’ championship.
“I felt like I was in control of that one and just used the pace when I needed to,” Piastri said.
“If we can keep it running then that’d be great, but there’s a long way to go yet, and we keep doing it one race at a time,” he added.
A thrilling start saw Verstappen, who started third on the grid, overtake Norris before briefly losing control of his Red Bull.
To the cheers of tens of thousands of his “Orange Army” fans, Verstappen recovered brilliantly to settle in behind Piastri, who got off to a clean start.
However, the faster race pace of the McLaren quickly told. and Norris passed the Dutchman on his left-hand side in lap nine to restore the one-two for the papaya team.
The big unknown in the run-up to the race had been the weather at the famously unpredictable circuit just a stone’s throw from the North Sea coast.
The first rain began to fall around lap 15 of 72 and just 10 laps later, claimed its first victim, as seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton slid his Ferrari off the track into the barriers.
“I’m so sorry guys,” said an unhurt Hamilton, who at the previous Grand Prix had described himself as a “completely useless” driver who should be replaced.
The safety car deployment bunched up the field again, but Piastri held off his determined teammate Norris, who in turn kept Verstappen at bay in third.
Behind the front-runners, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc pulled off an extraordinary overtaking maneuver on George Russell from Mercedes.
With the rain stopped and most drivers on fresh tires, McLaren engineers on the Norris side of the garage told their man: “Let’s go get Oscar.”
Since Zandvoort returned to the Formula One circuit in 2021, the driver who started on pole has won every time, the track notoriously difficult for overtaking.
Norris struggled to get close enough to his teammate Piastri, who kept a typically cool head to produce solid, error-free laps.
However, with 18 laps to go, there was more drama as Leclerc and Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli touched wheels during an overtaking maneuver, sending the Ferrari spinning into the barriers to complete a catastrophic weekend for the team.
With the cars bunched up again after the safety car, Piastri pulled out his fastest lap when it mattered to take control of the race once more.
Then with only six laps to go, Norris reported smoke in his cockpit, immediately crawling to a halt, his race over in heartbreaking fashion.
That left Piastri to hold off a last-ditch challenge by Verstappen in the closing laps to take the checkered flag.
A delighted Hadjar jumped into his team’s arms at the end of the race before climbing onto the podium for the first time.
“This was always the target since I was a kid. So, this is the first step, my first podium and hopefully much more,” he said.
The Grand Prix circus next moves to Monza, Italy, on Sunday when the Ferrari fans would be out in numbers, hoping for a better weekend for the team.
However, their chances of a much-needed pick-me-up were hit when Hamilton received a five-place grid penalty for Monza for failing to slow down in a yellow flag zone on the way to the grid.
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