Lando Norris won a chaotic Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on Sunday, crossing the line 11.5 seconds ahead of championship leader Kimi Antonelli to claim back-to-back victories and breathe new life into his title defence. The race was defined as much by what happened in its opening seconds as by anything that followed: four-time world champion Max Verstappen, racing at his home grand prix for the last time the circuit will host a Formula 1 race, crashed heavily at the banked final corner on the very first lap and was out before the chequered flag had barely been contemplated.
George Russell took the final podium position for Mercedes, holding off Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages. Charles Leclerc finished fifth, over 17 seconds off the pace. Verstappen walked away unharmed but with a wrecked Red Bull, a red flag, and a blunt assessment of where his team currently stands in the pecking order.
How Verstappen’s Race Ended Before It Began
Verstappen had started seventh — a consequence of feeling unwell throughout the weekend — and had navigated the first corner chaos of a four-wide moment at Turn 1. He was racing his stand-in Red Bull teammate Liam Lawson closely through the early corners and had just settled into seventh place when the damp final corner caught him out.
A rain shower 45 minutes before lights-out had left the track mostly dry, but the 18-degree banked final corner at Zandvoort retained moisture. Verstappen appeared to clip the inside kerb, lost the rear of the RB22, and slid across the track into the concrete barrier. The wreckage bounced back onto the racing surface, narrowly missing Pierre Gasly and Arvid Lindblad. His left-rear tyre flew off and rolled away. The race was red-flagged immediately.
“It was still quite wet in that corner, but as soon as I was going through, at one point I could see a little bit of a dry line coming, and I thought from this point I could accelerate again,” Verstappen said. “It caught me out. It’s as simple as that. I tried to correct it but couldn’t.” He described the impact as “a decent hit” but added he had “had worse.”
On the radio as he climbed from the car, he said simply: “Yeah that’s it. Sorry guys.”
Verstappen was candid about the broader picture heading into his home race. Red Bull brought no significant upgrades to Zandvoort, and he said the team was the fourth-fastest on the grid. “I wish for more, but you need to be realistic this season. We are the fourth-fastest team, so it’s not like walking up to Zandvoort and suddenly we can do some magic things. Other teams have brought upgrades, we haven’t. When you’re already on the back foot, it puts you even more on the back foot.”
How Norris Won — and What It Means for the Title
Norris started from pole and led for most of the race, but the outcome was not straightforward. Antonelli got past Russell at the start after the Briton had a poor getaway, then the red flag paused proceedings for 30 minutes. At the restart, Antonelli forced his way past Norris at Turn 1 and led the middle phase of the race.
The decisive moment came in the strategy. Norris pitted seven laps later than Antonelli, emerging on fresh tyres and hunting down the Mercedes. On lap 54, he swept past Antonelli around the outside of Turn 1 — a move Norris described as one of the highlights of what he called “probably one of my better wins.”
“I made it tough for myself today, but a good race. Well fought. The pace was very strong and I managed things incredibly well today. Over the moon, very happy and nice to win the final race here in Zandvoort,” he said.
The win cuts the title deficit but not dramatically. Norris remains 83 points behind Antonelli in fourth place in the standings. Russell and Hamilton are joint third, 59 points behind Antonelli, after a late-race moment that encapsulated the internal Mercedes dynamic: Russell had moved up to second after Antonelli pitted under the virtual safety car, but the team quickly asked him to move aside for the championship leader. Russell complied — “cordially, albeit with some protest” — and then had to hold off Hamilton behind him, which he managed. His title hopes depend on Antonelli’s consistency faltering.
Ferrari had a difficult afternoon, with Hamilton and Leclerc engaged in a tense radio battle over strategy. Hamilton urged the team to let him past Leclerc. Ferrari told him to pit. He was unhappy, pitted a lap later, and told the team: “Great way of wasting time guys, good job.”
The Dutch Grand Prix made its F1 debut in 2021 and has been a staple of the calendar since, largely driven by Verstappen’s enormous popularity in the Netherlands. This was its last edition on the current calendar.
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