Piastri extends title lead with Dutch GP triumph and Norris retirement

Oscar Piastri has taken a 34-point lead in the Formula 1 drivers' championship with a decisive victory at the Dutch Grand Prix in which McLaren teammate Lando Norris retired with a power unit problem.

Norris had spent the bulk of the race in second place behind Piastri, who had managed the race through two safety car periods to retain a slender lead, but smelled smoke in his cockpit with seven laps remaining. A plume of oil smoke burst from the rear of his McLaren, and the Briton was forced to park by the side of the road at Turn 9.

Having started the race with a nine-point deficit, his championship gap has now blown out to 34 points, more than the 25 points available for a grand prix victory.

A safety car was called to clear the stricken McLaren, and Piastri was forced to manage a final restart to win the race. The title leader deftly held off Max Verstappen, who was on soft tires to Piastri’s hards, to take the checkered flag having led every lap and set the fastest lap after starting from pole. The Australian's first career grand slam came on a significant afternoon for the championship campaign.

“It feels good,” he said. “I controlled the race when I needed to. Obviously incredibly unfortunate for Lando at the end, but it felt like I was in control of that one.

“It was a bit of a different race to 12 months ago [when Piastri finished 40s behind Norris]. Very happy with all the work we’ve done to try and improve around here. Very satisfied to come out on top.”

Verstappen had taken second place from Norris off the line but was powerless to hold it longer than nine laps. He was secure in third with no challenger behind him, but Norris’s retirement promoted him back to a runner-up finish, his first podium appearance since June’s Canadian Grand Prix.

“I gave it everything at the start to move forward,” he said. “We just had to do our own race. Unfortunately we didn’t have the pace with the McLarens. To be on the podium here is a great result. To be in second is a really good achievement for us.”

Verstappen took the fight to the McLarens early, but was unable to match their pace. Kym Illman/Getty Images

Isack Hadjar was almost as big a winner as Piastri from Norris’s unreliability, the French rookie promoted to his maiden podium finish after a superbly managed race.

Hadjar had spent the afternoon fourth, where he started, and put in a sterling race-long defensive drive to hold up George Russell and Charles Leclerc intermittently to secure the best result for a Racing Bulls driver since Pierre Gasly’s third place at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

“It feels a bit unreal,” he said. “What was most surprising to me was keeping that fourth place for the whole race. Unfortunately for Lando we took advantage of his [retirement], but we did no mistakes.

“The car was on rails the whole weekend. I’m really happy with myself because I really maximized what I had, made no mistakes and brought home the podium, so I’m so happy for my guys.”

Leclerc and Andrea Kimi Antonelli had been battling for the place behind Hadjar – Leclerc after having barged past Russell with a gutsy move at the chicane, Antonelli up from 11th on the grid – when they collided at the banked Turn 3, putting the Ferrari out of the race.

Antonelli shook the tree with a second pit stop, and Ferrari felt Leclerc had to respond on the following lap. He rejoined fractionally ahead of the Mercedes, but Antonelli felt he had the grip to overtake on the low line through Turn 3.

He was wrong, and instead he understeered into the Ferrari, tipping it into a spin into the barriers that ended Leclerc’s race on the spot.

It compounded a miserable day for Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton having crashed out at the same turn earlier in the race, losing control of his car over the slippery painted advertisements at the top of the banking in light falling rain.

Russell retook what became fourth place in the aftermath, but after having picked up damage in Leclerc’s chicane pass, the final 15 laps of the race following the safety car resumption were spent keeping Alex Albon behind him.

Albon couldn’t poke a hole in Russell’s defenses but finished a nonetheless excellent fifth, equaling his and the team’s best result of the season. Fifth was 10 places up on Albon’s starting position, thanks in part to a sizzling start that moved him up five places on the first lap alone and then pitting during the first two safety cars to lock in the gains.

Antonelli crossed the line sixth but was slapped with a 10s penalty for crashing with Leclerc and another 5s penalty for speeding in the pit lane to drop him to 16th in the classification.

Oliver Bearman rose from the pit lane to a sensational sixth for his first Sunday points since the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Haas driver ambitiously completed the first 53 laps without a tire change, allowing him to make a big gain through making a single stop during the safety car for the Leclerc crash.

Lance Stroll took a similar route to seventh, up from 19th on the grid. The Canadian pitted very early, on lap 8, to undercut his way into the points, and a stop during the second safety car locked in the rise. It helped him past teammate Fernando Alonso, who finished eighth with a more conventionally timed two-stop strategy.

Yuki Tsunoda scored his first points since May’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix with ninth place despite suffering from a throttle problem that left him with an unresponsive right pedal.

Esteban Ocon scored the final point in 10th with the same approach as Bearman, gaining him eight places from where he started.

Franco Colapinto finished 11th and half a second away from his first point.

Liam Lawson was 12th after losing a spot in the points in a crash with Carlos Sainz after the safety car for Hamilton's incident. The pair made contact in the first turn, damaging both cars, for which the stewards slapped Sainz with a 10s penalty.

Sainz finished 13th ahead of Sauber teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, who gained from the first safety car but dropped after the second.

Antonelli finished a penalized 16th ahead of Pierre Gasly, who faded late on old tires.

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