McLaren endured the extremes of human emotion at Zandvoort on Sunday as one of their drivers excelled while the other suffered the pain of a shock retirement in a chaotic Dutch Grand Prix. Lawrence Barretto picks out his winners and losers from the first race after the summer break…<\/p>\n
Winner: Oscar Piastri<\/p>\n
Oscar Piastri’s<\/a> hopes of winning a maiden Formula 1 World Championship in only his third campaign took a big boost in Zandvoort as he converted a superb pole (his fifth of the season) and seventh win in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Australian was outpaced by his team mate through practice, but delivered when it mattered in Qualifying and managed all the drama in the race (which included multiple restarts) to perfection.<\/p>\n His ninth career victory ties his manager and former Red Bull racer Mark Webber’s total \u2013 while it was also the first time he’s led from start to finish in Formula 1.<\/p>\n That success was compounded by a mechanical failure for his McLaren team mate Lando Norris<\/a>, with the Australian moving 34 points clear<\/a> in their near-private fight for this year’s title.<\/p>\n Loser: Lando Norris<\/p>\n Norris got up to speed around Zandvoort much quicker than his team mate Piastri, with the Briton coming out on top in all three practice sessions.<\/p>\n But he couldn’t convert that performance into pole position \u2013 which left him with a mountain to climb on Sunday given the difficulties of overtaking on the narrow Dutch track.<\/p>\n The Briton gave it a good go, reclaiming second from reigning World Champion Max Verstappen<\/a> before setting off in pursuit of Piastri. But he never got close enough to launch a proper attack and then saw his challenge extinguished when he smelt smoke that highlighted the issue that forced his retirement.<\/p>\n That’s his first DNF since Canada, and means the momentum is firmly with his team mate with nine Grand Prix weekends to go.<\/p>\n Winner: Isack Hadjar<\/p>\n Isack Hadjar’s sensational rookie season reached new heights in Zandvoort as he recovered from, in his words, a “disaster” of a Friday to secure a career-best fourth on the grid.<\/p>\n The Frenchman then comfortably ran fourth, despite being ahead of faster cars \u2013 and then rode his luck when Norris retired to take a brilliant podium in only his 15th Grand Prix.<\/p>\n The Racing Bulls driver becomes the fifth-youngest podium finisher of all time, behind Verstappen, Lance Stroll, Kimi Antonelli and Norris, and is the youngest Frenchman to ever stand on a Formula 1 rostrum.<\/p>\n The huge points haul catapults him into the top 10 in the Drivers’ Standings, while Racing Bulls close the gap to Williams to 20 points in the fight for P5 in the Teams’ Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n Loser: Liam Lawson<\/p>\n Liam Lawson<\/a> was on course to make it a double points finish for Racing Bulls after another top-10 start \u2013 but a collision with Williams’ Carlos Sainz instantly ended any hopes of adding to his tally.<\/p>\n The New Zealander was the only Red Bull stable car not to score points on Sunday \u2013 with Verstappen second and Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> ending a seven-race streak without points.<\/p>\n It also ended his run of two Grands Prix in the points, and now leaves him 17 points behind Racing Bulls team mate Hadjar.<\/p>\n Winner: Alex Albon<\/p>\n Alex Albon<\/a> was irritated after getting booted out of Qualifying, having had his out-lap compromised by queueing in the pit lane to end up 15th.<\/p>\n But his mood improved dramatically on Sunday with a stellar performance that began with him rising up five places at the start to run 10th.<\/p>\n Amid the chaos around him, the Briton kept his nose clean and raced well to rise up to fifth and ensure Williams scored well enough to keep their grip on P5 in the Teams’ Championship.<\/p>\n His 10th points finish of the season is his most in a single campaign since joining Williams in 2022 and moves him level with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in the Drivers’ Championship.<\/p>\n Loser: Carlos Sainz<\/p>\n Carlos Sainz rarely gets annoyed on team radio, but he was furious with the stewards’ decision to hand him a 10-second time penalty for colliding with Lawson when trying to pass his rival around the outside.<\/p>\n It ruined a weekend that had been bright to start with for Sainz<\/a>, with the Spaniard out-qualifying his team mate Albon to line up ninth for his first Q3 appearance since Imola way back in May.<\/p>\n He was in great shape to finish fifth but the collision with Lawson forced a pit stop for new tyres and a new nose, which dropped him to the back of the field and out of contention for points.<\/p>\n That extends his point-less run in Grands Prix to five, though he did score in that period courtesy of a strong drive to sixth in the Belgian Sprint.<\/p>\n Winner: Ollie Bearman<\/p>\n Ollie Bearman has driven well this season but all too often left race weekends empty-handed (he finished 11th four times in a row from Canada).<\/p>\n His chances of adding to that tally looked bleak when he qualified badly before opting to start from the pit lane after changing a host of engine components.<\/p>\n But in running a long opening stint and then pitting under the Safety Car on Lap 54 of 72, he used fresh tyres to pass Fernando Alonso, Gabriel Bortoleto and Pierre Gasly and rise up to eighth, which became sixth courtesy of Norris’ DNF<\/a> and Antonelli’s time penalties for his collision with Charles Leclerc and speeding in the pit lane.<\/p>\n Loser: Kimi Antonelli<\/p>\n Kimi Antonelli recovered from a poor start to his weekend when he beached his Mercedes in the gravel after just six laps in Friday practice to qualify just outside the top-10 in 11th.<\/p>\n The Italian then raced superbly to run sixth \u2013 but a move on Leclerc, which his Ferrari rival described as “overly optimistic”, earned him a 10-second time penalty.<\/p>\n Combined with the five seconds for speeding in the pit lane, he dropped from sixth on the road to 16th in the classification.<\/p>\n Winner: Lance Stroll<\/p>\n Crashes in both second practice and Qualifying kept Lance Stroll’s side of the Aston Martin<\/a> garage busy in Zandvoort.<\/p>\n The Canadian lined up 19th \u2013 following his 10th Q1 elimination of the season \u2013 but some smart strategy with an early pit stop hauled him into points contention.<\/p>\n He went on to finish seventh for the third time in four races, moving him ahead of Aston Martin team mate Fernando Alonso in the Drivers’ Standings.<\/p>\n Losers: Ferrari<\/p>\n Ferrari recovered from a challenging Friday to get both cars into Q3 \u2013 something Lewis Hamilton hadn’t done since Silverstone.<\/p>\n While they lacked the pace to fight McLaren or Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, they were easily a match for Mercedes on race day.<\/p>\n