New Delhi: Oscar Piastri comes back from the summer break with an impressive win in the Dutch Grand Prix. His sixth of the season and his ninth career win came at the right time as the battle for the Driver’s championship tightened between him and his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris. Max Verstappen returned to the podium in his home race, making his first top-three finish since this year’s Canadian GP, finishing ahead of Isack Hadjar, who took his first podium finish of his career.
It was a pinpoint start from Norris, who started off the line better than his teammate starting in pole, but the Briton gave up yet another good start. He and Max Verstappen played the cat a mouse game until the second corner when the Dutch driver went past Norris. However, McLaren had the better pace, and on the ninth lap, Norris made the move, and Verstappen found it tough to keep up in front of his home crowd.
With rain looming around, tyre strategy was crucial, and Aston Martin was the first to pit their cars, and their strategy didn’t go in line with the forthcoming rain. The race was running smoothly, and Ferrari looked close to turning their weekend around when the first of the tragedies struck them.
GET IN THERE, OSC 🥇
P1 in the first race back 💪#McLaren | #DutchGP 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/h4n4AHafay
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) August 31, 2025
Heartbreak for Ferrari in the start of the second half of the season
Lewis Hamilton found himself on the pit wall on the 23rd lap of the race, with the wet conditions providing full assistance. The seven-time champion came out a little wide into turn three and lost control of the rear wheel. With the safety car deployed, the gap built by Piastri had reduced, though it mattered less as he was quick on the throttle on restart. McLaren went for a double pit stop, and Norris started without the front jack off, but the McLaren pit crew was intelligent enough to avoid a calamity.
Having already chewed the Piastri lead, Norris was right on the Australian driver’s tail as the gap between them of nine points looked too small to hang on to. However, Norris never came close to the one-second mark to open DRS.
Leclerc was trying to savour as many points for Ferrari as possible and was challenging Mercedes driver George Russell, going wheel to wheel at one point. Disaster struck in the 53rd lap when he crashed with the second Mercedes driver, Kimi Antonelli. Antonelli was hitting the final prancing horse car, and in turn, spun him into the wall, and there was another safety car. Thus ended Ferrari’s disastrous weekend, with two cars finishing DNF, the first time for the team since the Canada GP in 2024.
Leclerc noted that the pit stop was unnecessary as he was feeling good in the car. Antonelli had earlier looked threatening, and Russell had allowed him to pass in order to challenge Ferrari. Antonelli dove into the left tyre in the exit, suffering a minor puncture. Stewards, though, gave him a ten-second penalty. For Ferrari, the second part of the season hasn’t gone in their favour.
Lando Norris misses despite a good run in the race
The race went into Piastri’s favour when Norris reported a smoke smell in the cockpit and had to retire following an oil leak aboard his Engine manufactured by Mercedes. This was the third safety car, and Verstappen saw a chance to reclaim the crown he had won three times in a row since the Dutch GP returned in 2021. However, the Australian driver was in control of the race and took his seventh win of the season, increasing the gap between him and Norris by 34 points now.
For Norris, it was a heartbreak moment having worked really hard to challenge Piastri and even had recorded the fastest lap of the race. The British driver has been performing well throughout the season to be second in the race for the Driver’s championship, but through the fickle play of luck, losing the crucial race that is setting this competition apart each time. For Piastri, it was a worrying sight, of course, as the same powered car was sitting idle in the grid.
Driver of the Day
Isack Haldjar came into the season without having finished the Australian Grand Prix, and even this weekend had the 12th best lap in FP1 and ninth in FP3, and did just one lap in FP2. He started well, with him finding himself in the second row for Sunday’s race. He knew he had the pace, and he knew he would be scoring points.
Finishing third in the race may have been played by luck, too, but he managed to fight the early attack from Leclerc to keep himself in fourth place. He maintained his position through the safety car to come on top, maintaining a good distance from fifth place in the closing stages.