After almost a month off, Formula One returned to the legendary circuit of Zandvoort, nestled in the coastal dunes of the Netherlands — approximately 30 km (or 19 miles) from the beautiful city of Amsterdam. Known for its old-school design, banked corners, and the technical Tarzan corner (a banked 180-degree hairpin), Zandvoort is a track built for overtakes and challenges drivers of all levels. The stories of the weekend? The return of the Japanese driver, Yuki Tsunoda.
Sprint Qualifying
It was no surprise to see the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli at the top of the leaderboard early in the session, but he and other drivers were caught out by the technicality of the Dutch circuit, leaving the track and finding a new route through the run-off areas and gravel traps. What seemed to be a fast start for Mercedes would slowly dwindle away through the session, bringing some welcome surprises — the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc topping the charts exiting SQ1, followed by the upgraded McLarens of Lando Norris in P2 and Oscar Piastri in P3.
The following session, McLaren decided to step things up a bit, clearing the Ferrari of Leclerc to put Lando Norris in P1 with his teammate, Oscar Piastri, in P2, followed by Leclerc in P3. Of the two Mercedes, George Russell seemed to be finding his rhythm and pace, exiting SQ2 with P4, and Lewis Hamilton on his heels in P5. What seemed like such a strong start for Kimi Antonelli would see him in a surprising P6 with Pierre Gasly and his Alpine only two-tenths behind the Mercedes in P7. While it’s his home Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was showing signs of pace issues for most of free practice throughout this week, and the trend continued, crossing the line P8, closely followed by Arvid Lindblad in P9 and Gabriel Bortoleto in another impressive P10 position.
Earlier this week, Toto Wolff made a comment regarding the R&D upgrades of the McLarens and Ferraris, “We haven’t got the money to put developments on the car. We are trying to evenly split that through the season, based on our calculations of when we can bring the biggest updates and optimising the championship points. That’s why it is a development race. If you bring an upgrade, each of the top teams will have a couple of 10ths in it, at least. And that’s what you lose. So, yeah, the ride has been a bit tougher than at the beginning of the year.” It became an ironic comment after George Russell came screaming across the line to lock in P1 in SQ3, followed oh so closely by the McLaren of Norris in P2, just four-hundredths of a second behind, and Charles Leclerc and his Ferrari rounding out the Top 3 heading into Saturday’s sprint race. The rest: Oscar Piastri P4 (McLaren), Kimi Antonelli P5 (Mercedes), Max Verstappen P6 (Red Bull), Lewis Hamilton P7 (Ferrari), Pierre Gasly P8 (Alpine Mercedes), Gabriel Bortoleto P9 (Audi), and Arvid Lindblad in P10 (Racing Bulls).
Sprint Race
Russell and his Mercedes launched off the line, easily covering the charging McLarens of Norris and Piastri. Russell proved the outside line heading into the steep banking of Turn 3 (Hugenholtzbocht), carrying plenty of momentum to increase his lead over the rest of the pack.
Antonelli and his Mercedes had a phenomenal start too, allowing Antonelli to make quick work of Oscar Piastri for P4. The battle for P2 between Norris and Leclerc was heating up, much like the soft tires on the Ferrari of Leclerc, giving him the upper hand in terms of overall grip, but Norris would fight to maintain his position.
The positions on track would remain the same for numerous laps until one hard push lap from Leclerc would give him the opportunity to close in on Norris down the main straight. Leclerc would secure the overtake after turn one, as Norris seemed to be struggling with rear grip as the race went on. Norris would be in trouble once again as the Mercedes of Antonelli would find his rear bumper, but no matter how hard he tried, Antonelli couldn’t find his way around the McLaren.
The race wasn’t as eventful as many had thought, but there was potential for greatness many times throughout the race. The sprint ended with a couple of overtakes and some great battles: Russell in P1, Leclerc in P2, Norris in P3, Antonelli in P4, Piastri in P5, Max Verstappen in P6, Lewis Hamilton in P7, Pierre Gasly in P8, Gabriel Bortoleto in P9, and Arvid Lindblad in P10.
Qualifying
Q1 was a wild ride and quite the lineup change compared to Sprint Qualifying. Oscar Piastri decided to start things off, lining his McLaren up in P1, with Lewis Hamilton on his heels early in P2, followed by the McLaren of Norris ever closer in P3. The story of the weekend has been the return of Yuki Tsunoda to the grid, taking the place of Liam Lawson, who was moved up to Red Bull this weekend, replacing Isack Hadjar. Though Tsunoda hadn’t been in a car for over 8 months, his quick pace all weekend — including his P7 in Q1 — showed Tsunoda was back to taking care of business.
Q2, Lando Norris found a bit more pace, surpassing his McLaren teammate for the top spot, with Piastri slipping back into P2. After a rough start to the weekend, Max Verstappen found more pace and brought his Red Bull up to P3, with Charles Leclerc right behind in P4. The Mercedes of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were slightly off the pace compared to their rivals up front with P5 and P6, while Lewis Hamilton continued to struggle with P7 exiting Q2. Liam Lawson found a bit more out of his Red Bull, crossing the line P8, with Gabriel Bortoleto chasing in P9 and Arvid Lindblad rounding out the session in P10.
In the final session of qualifying, with the pace shown across all teams, it could be anyone’s time to shine. Showing immediate pace, Lando Norris put his McLaren on the front row in P1. George Russell and Oscar Piastri would fight for most of the session, battling it out for P2, but Russell would come out the victor in that battle, securing P2 with teammate Kimi Antonelli in P3. Piastri would lose a bit of pace and see himself in P4 with a slightly quicker and more comfortable Lewis Hamilton in P5, followed by teammate Charles Leclerc in P6. While it looked promising, Max Verstappen and his Red Bull struggled through Q3, and the best result he could get was P7, with his teammate for the weekend, Liam Lawson, right behind in P8. Another impressive weekend for Gabriel Bortoleto in P9 and Arvid Lindblad in P10, who rounded out qualifying.
Race
The greatest words in motorsport: it’s lights out, and away we go! George Russell bogged down at the start, throwing a block on Lando Norris, giving teammate Kimi Antonelli the opportunity to overtake for P2, while the McLarens battled heading into Turn 1 with George Russell in the mix. The Ferraris of Leclerc and Hamilton were quickly on the move, attacking the McLarens through Turns 1 and 2, applying the pressure, giving Leclerc P4 and leaving Hamilton to battle it out with Piastri. Heading through Turn 3, the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Lawson made contact, wheels colliding on exit, but luckily, no damage was done to either car.
Then, suddenly, disaster struck. On a race track, there is a white line that often outlines a corner and is sometimes used to identify the apex (the innermost point of a corner where a driver gets as close as possible to the inside curb to maintain maximum speed), but the paint used for that white line can become extremely slippery when wet. Max Verstappen was taking his usual line through Turn 13 when his right rear just grazed the white line, sending the car into an uncontrolled spin, slamming his Red Bull into the wall at over 200 km/h (124 mph), bringing out the red flag and bringing all on-track activity back to the pit lane. In that same corner, Gabriel Bortoleto also lost control of his Audi but managed to save it.
After a 30-minute red flag, all debris was cleared, the wall was repaired, and we were ready to go racing, or so I thought. During the formation lap, there was a call for an extra lap due to the Haas of Oliver Bearman sitting motionless on the outside of the small straight just before Turn 11. Drivers were given another opportunity to warm up the tires, brakes, and make any adjustments before lining up for the start.
It’s never the same twice, but again, it’s lights out and away we go! Norris had a rough start, giving Antonelli the opportunity to pounce on the McLaren. A naughty Norris would attempt to crowd Antonelli into the pit wall to defend his lead, but the Mercedes was relentless, forcing his way back onto the racing line and making a beautiful pass for the lead, which broke the momentum of Norris, allowing George Russell to close the gap on Norris, but that also allowed the gap to close between him and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri behind. Piastri would make a brilliant late braking move on Russell, claiming P3, with Russell now defending against Charles Leclerc.
I have one quibble; I wish F1 would cover more of the race in the mid-pack because the action was spectacular. It was a hard-fought battle for P11 between Arvid Lindblad and Pierre Gasly, with Lindblad making a late-braking pass on Gasly into Turn 10 and defending the position hard into Turn 11, running Gasly wide and opening the door for the Audi of Nico Hülkenberg to join in on the fun, overtaking Gasly in the process. Turning attention to the main straight, Hülkenberg made an attempt to pass on the Racing Bull of Arvid Lindblad heading into Turn 1. Lindblad looked like he had it covered, but the new soft tires on the Audi made it an easy pass around the outside. The battle continued — Yuki Tsunoda was gaining on the rear bumper of Pierre Gasly, making a technically beautiful pass into Turn 7, showing his racecraft in F1 is still very much alive.
After late pit stops, Lewis Hamilton found himself in the lead of the Grand Prix, but not for long. The very hungry Mercedes of Antonelli and the McLaren of Norris were hunting down the Ferrari of Hamilton lap by lap, second by second. While Antonelli was catching up with hopes for the lead, Norris was right behind him, waiting for a gap to stick the front end of his McLaren in and attempt to pass the Mercedes. Coming down the main straight, Antonelli had momentum, but Norris had even more momentum from the draft, allowing him to make an outside pass heading into Turn 1, giving him the opportunity to attack Hamilton for the lead. One lap later, Norris made it look easy, diving to the outside and making the pass just before Turn 10, taking P1 and pulling away.
The Haas of Esteban Ocon would be seen stopped on the side of the track — a sad and expensive day for the American team, but this would bring out the VSC (Virtual Safety Car) and allow teams to pit for new tires to run for the remainder of the race. With the pace of the Mercedes of Antonelli much quicker than Russell, the command was made for both cars to switch positions — Antonelli to move into P2 with Russell moving down to P3. With so much speculation about tension between Antonelli and Russell, as well as how things are handled at Mercedes, I couldn’t begin to imagine what George was thinking when the order was placed.
Just when I thought there couldn’t be more carnage, there was. There’s one rule in racing: don’t wreck your teammate. The Williams of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon made contact entering Turn 1, with Albon locking up his brakes and driving into the side of Sainz, damaging the barge board, floor, and causing slight damage to the front suspension and wing of Albon’s car.
This is it — the final lap. With both Norris and Antonelli pulling away, it was a battle between two Ferraris and a Mercedes, with Russell defending like mad to protect his P3 finishing position. Two Ferraris in your mirror are intimidating, but Russell was able to keep his composure and fight off both Hamilton and Leclerc to secure a well-driven P3 finish. The rest: Lewis Hamilton P4, Charles Leclerc P5, Oscar Piastri P6, Liam Lawson P7, Nico Hülkenberg P8, with his first points of the season for Aston Martin; Fernando Alonso finished P9, and Pierre Gasly claimed the last championship point with P10.
While the weekend started slowly, the main race was one to watch and one I’ll probably watch over and over again. With how much McLaren has improved since race one, I’m intrigued to see what other upgrades they have in the pipeline and what other upgrades Ferrari will be including in the next few races. When’s the next race, you ask? On September 6th, F1 will be at the Italian circuit of Monza, home of the Tifosi and one of the longest straights with the most frustrating/brake-destroying corner as Turn 1. It is a personal favourite of mine, so I can’t wait to give my thoughts in the next one.
FEATURE PHOTO: FORMULA ONE, MERCEDES-AMG PETRONAS F1 TEAM, 2026 DUTCH GP: KIMI ANTONELLI, GEORGE RUSSELL.
