Oscar Piastri took a 34-point lead in the Formula 1 drivers championship in a decisive victory at the Dutch Grand Prix, where McLaren teammate Rand Norris retired due to power unit issues.
Norris spent most of the race in second place behind Piastri. Piastri held a thin lead after two safety car periods, but sniffed smoke in the cockpit for the remaining seven laps. A plume of oil smoke bursts from behind his McLaren, forcing the British to park on Turn 9 to the side of the road.
His championship gap, which started the race with a 9-point deficit, was blown to 34 points to more than 25 points available to win the Grand Prix.
A safety car is called to clear the attacked McLaren, and Piastri is forced to manage the final reboot to win the race. The title leader skillfully held Max Verstappen, who had a hard, soft tire on the piastry, led all the laps to take the checkered flag, starting with the pole before setting the fastest lap. Australia’s first career grand slam came on a major afternoon in the championship campaign.
“It feels good,” he said. “We controlled the race when we needed it, and while it was clearly incredibly unfortunate for the last Rand, it felt like we were in control.
“It was a slightly different race from 12 months ago (when Piastri finished his 40s behind Norris), and I was very pleased with all the work I tried to improve around here.
Verstappen came in second from Norris, but was helpless to hold it longer than nine laps. He was safe in third place as there were no challengers behind him, but Norris’ retirement made him back to runner-up and appeared on his first podium since the Canadian Grand Prix in June.
“I gave everything to move it all forward first,” he said. “We had to race our own. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a pace with McLaren. Being on the podium here is a huge result. Being second is a really good result for us.”
Verstappen fought McLaren early but couldn’t fit their pace. Kym Illman/Getty Images
Isack Hadjar was just as big a winner as Piastri from Norris’ reliability. The French rookie was promoted to his maiden podium finish after a brilliantly managed race.
On the 4th of the afternoon, Hajar took a defensive drive in the Sterling Race to keep George Russell and Charles Leclair intermittently when he began, ensuring the best results for the Racing Bulls drivers from Pierre Guthrie’s third place in the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
“It’s a little unrealistic,” he said. “The most surprising thing for me was to keep that fourth place in the entire race. Unfortunately for Rand we used him (retirement) and there was no mistake.
“The car was on the rails all weekend, and I’m really happy because I made the most of what I had, didn’t make any mistakes and took the podium home.
Leclerc and Andrea Kimi Antonelli were fighting for the place behind Hadjar – Leclerc went past Russell with Antonelli from 11th place on the Grid, then collided with Leclerc on Bank Cutter 3 and put Ferrari out of the race.
Antoneri rocked the tree at the second pit stop, and Ferrari felt Leclair had to respond on the next lap. He joined repeatedly before Mercedes, but I felt Antonelli had a grip that overtakes the low line through turn 3.
He was wrong so instead understood it to Ferrari and spin it into the barrier that ended Leclair’s race on the spot.
It made a disastrous day for Ferrari even worse, when Lewis Hamilton crashed on the same turn early in the race, losing control of his car over a slippery painted ad at the top of the banking business in light rain.
Russell recaptured what came in fourth in the aftermath, but after being damaged by Leclair’s Cicooan pass, the final 15 laps of the race after the safety car reopened were spent with Alex Albon behind him.
Albon couldn’t make a hole in Russell’s defense, but still finished a great fifth, comparable to his and his team’s best results of the season. The fifth was Albon’s starting position in 10 places. This was thanks to a hot start, which led to fifth place on the first lap alone, and locked the gain by getting a pit in the first two safety cars.
Antoneri crossed the line for the sixth time, but was slapped with a 10-second penalty if he crashed on Leclerc and a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, making him 16th in classification.
Oliver Baerman rose to sixth sensational from Pit Lane in his first Sunday point since Bahrain Granpuri. The Haas driver was ambitiously able to complete the first 53 laps without a tire change and earned a great deal of profit by making one stop in the safety car due to a Leclerc crash.
Lance Stroll took a similar route from 19th to 7th on the grid. The Canadian got the pit very early on lap 8, paving the way to the point and stopped in the second safety car trapped in the ascent. That helped him finish eighth past teammate Fernando Alonso with a more traditional timing two-stop strategy.
Yuki Tsunoda scored his first points in ninth place despite suffering from throttle issues that left him with an unresponsive right pedal since the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in May.
Esteban Ocon scored the final points in 10th place with the same approach as Bearman, earning eight places from where he started.
Franco Colapinto finished 11th and 30 seconds from his first point.
Liam Lawson was 12th after losing a spot in points in a crash with Carlos Sainz after a safety car for the Hamilton incident. The pair contacted them on the first turn, damaging both cars and the steward slapped Sainz for a 10-second penalty.
Sainz ranked 13th over Sauber’s teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto.
Antonelli finished the 16th-place penalty over Pierre Guthrie, who disappeared late on his old tires.
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