Piastri wins while Norris retires from mechanical failure, Hadjar scores maiden F1 podium

Oscar Piastri took his seventh win of 2025 and extends his championship lead to 34 points, after teammate Lando Norris suffered a damaging mechanical failure that took him out of the race. Max Verstappen was promoted to second on home soil, while Isack Hadjar sealed his maiden Formula One podium in his rookie season with Racing Bulls.

Credit: Formula One

Formula One makes a much-awaited return after the annual summer break, kicking off the final 10 rounds at Zandvoort.

McLaren wasted no time demonstrating their dominance once again, topping all practice sessions and stealing pole – Norris being the Friday favourite but Piastri pipping his rival in the dying moments of Q3 when it mattered most.

Piastri cruised to another pole-to-win victory, while Norris was forced to retire from P2 while challenging for a win after a rare mechanical failure on his McLaren with under 10 laps to go. Max Verstappen took a home podium, joined by Isack Hadjar with a remarkable maiden podium in his rookie season with Racing Bulls.

Race Report

19 cars lined up on the grid, with Ollie Bearman forced to take a pit lane start with a new Power Unit. The top 10 were all on mediums, barring Max Verstappen taking a gamble on the soft tyre which set him up for a rapid launch off the start that saw him sweep into P2 ahead of Norris.

The Dutchman made the pass on Norris stick, but had a heart-in-throat moment after almost losing it into Turn 3 while sizing up a move for the lead.

More moves were made on the opening lap, as Charles Leclerc jumped George Russell in fifth and Alex Albon made a mighty leap from 15th to 10th, slotting in right behind his teammate.

Meanwhile, Piastri received a radio indicating rain cells around Lap 7, the Australian hanging on to the lead, two seconds ahead of Verstappen.

Further back, Lance Stroll made a narrow pass on Gabriel Bortoleto at Turn 11, not without dislocating the Sauber’s frontwing endplate, before ducking into the pits for an early stop.

There was a riot of action across the opening laps | Credit: Formula One

Another rookie involved in a scuffle with a much experienced driver was Hadjar, one of the stars of qualifying, now defending his P4 from Leclerc. Just ahead of them, Norris took back second from Verstappen with a smooth overtake around the outside out of Turn 1 on Lap 9, and swiftly got down to business with his purple sectors making a statement of intent.

Verstappen’s opening lap heroics lost steam at this stage, his soft tyres degrading as he found himself slipping into the action between Hadjar and Leclerc behind.

Another battle gaining traction was for 11th, between Yuki Tsunoda, Kimi Antonelli and Fernando Alonso – the Spaniard dropping down after a mighty Q3 entry on Saturday.

By Lap 15, the threat of rain had finally materialised, Piastri reporting drops of rain on his visor. As the umbrellas popped up across the sea of orange in the grandstands, on track action was also hindered by Bortoleto’s endplate, with Stroll and Norris running over the piece of carbon fibre and inviting Race Control to note the rookie for driving in unsafe conditions.

Running in 14th and 15th, Alpine enforced team orders to let Pierre Gasly past Franco Colapinto, both drivers struggling for pace in the middle of the pack. 

Alonso took his first stop of the race on Lap 19, switching to the hards, triggering the first round of stops in the mid-field.

At this stage, a steady drizzle had descended upon the track, as Norris was hurried up by his team to close the three-second gap to Piastri.

A race-tipping moment came on Lap 24, as Lewis Hamilton hit the wall out of Turn 3, in an unlikely driver error for the seven-time champion – just as Leclerc had trundled out of the pits on new hards under a Safety Car, thereby losing a free pitstop.

Lewis Hamilton crashed out at Turn 3 | Credit: Formula One

The Monegasque driver lost P5 to Russell with his unlucky timing with the Safety Car, which ended on Lap 26.

Resuming green flag conditions, Piastri nailed the restart but it was chaos further behind between Liam Lawson and Carlos Sainz scrapping for seventh. 

Contact between the two meant both drivers plummeted down the order to dead last, eventually returning to the pits for damage repairs, while Sainz picked up a shocking 10-second penalty later on for the incident.

Lawson’s teammate was faring much better, still skillfully holding on to P4 and defending from Russell. Meanwhile, Stroll and the Haas pair had been lifted to 10th and 11th after electing to stay out during the Safety Car.

A Virtual Safety Car (VSC) slowed down the action on Lap 32 to pick up debris on the main straight, but it was right back to racing as Leclerc barged past Russell at the restart with a defiant move through Turn 1, banging wheels with the Mercedes.

The Ferrari vs Mercedes contact was quickly noted for causing a collision, while the McLaren vs McLaren battle was stoked by Norris’ engineer – encouraging the Briton to unleash his car’s pace to catch up to Piastri.

As the laps ticked down, Norris chipped away at the gap to close it down to just a little over a second, setting the stage for yet another late race melee between the Papaya pair.

Sandwiched between the top teams was the outlier mid-field rookie of Hadjar, running in contention for a possible podium as he stuck close behind the senior car of Verstappen on the mediums.

Behind the top five, Russell was informed that his pace had been compromised following the collision with Leclerc, prompting a swap of positions between Russell and Antonelli.

With under 25 laps to go, Haas remained the only team who hadn’t stopped yet. 

Meanwhile, Antonelli took a second stop, eliciting a reaction from Leclerc too – both cars bolting on the softs. In a dramatic moment out of the pits, Antonelli and Leclerc made contact, sending Leclerc spinning across the same corner where Hamilton crashed out. Leclerc was swiftly out of the race, recording a double DNF in a nightmare weekend for Ferrari. 

A dejected Charles Leclerc after his race ended early in a disastrous weekend for Ferrari | Credit: Formula One

The Mercedes rookie collected a 10-second time penalty for the incident, as another Safety Car was released to neutralise the pack.

With the top two on hards and the five drivers immediately behind on softs, the restart was surprisingly clean as Piastri held on to the lead ahead of Norris, Verstappen and Hadjar.

It went from bad to worse for Antonelli, who received an extra five seconds to his 10-second penalty after speeding in the pit lane during the Safety Car.

With 10 laps to go, a key battle played out between Bearman and Gasly for eighth, the rookie making up positions after starting from the pit lane and potentially having the pace to challenge for seventh too following Antonelli’s penalty.

Another driver making moves up the field was Stroll, climbing up 10 positions and taking ninth from Gasly too.

The dying moments of a dramatic race, it was trouble in paradise for Norris and McLaren, as the championship-contender in P2 reported smoke out of his engine, bringing his Dutch weekend to a heartbreaking end.

Lando Norris was another driver who took to the hills following a gutting retirement | Credit: Formula One

Lap 69 brought a third Safety Car restart, this time with Piastri joined by Verstappen and Hadjar pushed up a position.

The final stint of the race was smooth sailing for Piastri, cruising to extend his lead in the title by 34 points, but the underdog story of the day was Hadjar scoring a maiden F1 podium in his rookie season with Racing Bulls – just under two seconds behind the senior team’s home hero Verstappen.

Russell held on to fourth despite the late-race threat from Albon, while Bearman scored his first points since the opening rounds in sixth.

Aston Martin made it a back-to-back double points finish, continuing their momentum from Hungary, with Stroll and Alonso executing clinical overtakes to seal seventh and eighth, while Tsunoda and Ocon rounded out the top 10 after Antonelli’s 15-second penalty was applied.

Colapinto took his highest finish of the season with 11th, ahead of Lawson and Sainz – the Williams driver frustrated with a penalty he felt was undeserved. 

The Sauber pair dipped in showing during the race, taking 14th and 15th when points were on the table, while Antonelli and Gasly were the last of the classified drivers after Ferrari’s double DNF and Norris’ gutting retirement. 

Full results can be found here.

Championship Standings

With yet another win, Piastri has extended his championship lead to 34 points, ruining Norris' efforts to chip away at it in one fell swoop following the Briton's heartbreaking retirement.

Down in tenth, Hadjar is level on points with Nico Hülkenberg with 37 each, following his mighty effort to take a mid-field car to P3.

Over in the Constructors' standings, Ferrari's double DNF drops them back into the clutches of Mercedes, who scored points with Russell's P4.

Key Quotes

Verstappen was unable to challenge Piastri for the win in the late stages | Credit: Formula One

Piastri was clearly satisfied with the weekend following a huge swing of points in his favour.

The Australian shared: "I felt in control from Lap 1 and used the pace when I needed to, but sorry for Lando [Norris].

"The start of the weekend looked like a difficult one, got it together in Qualifying and very happy with this one. A couple of Safety Cars to spice it up. It was a big team effort.

"There's a long way to go, so we'll keep going, one race at a time."

The other star of the weekend was rookie Hadjar, who was elated with securing a special maiden podium: "It feels a bit unreal. What was most surprising to me was keeping the fourth place for the race.

"Unfortunate for Lando, we took advantage of his [DNF]. I maximised what I had and made no mistakes.

"This was the target since I was a kid, this is the first step and hopefully more to come."

Isack Hadjar is the second rookie to score a podium in 2025 | Credit: Formula One

Verstappen was happy with P2 given the McLaren's pace advantage, and shared: "Wasn't easy - gave it everything at the start to move forward and had a little moment in Turn 2. But in general to be on the podium here is a great result."

Up Next

F1 will return to Monza, taking to the calendar staple from 5th-7th September. The grid will reconvene at the Temple of Speed as we continue the chase to crown 2025’s Drivers’ Champion.