All the key moments from the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix

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The final Dutch Grand Prix certainly delivered a memorable event, with Lando Norris taking the spoils in a dramatic race on Sunday. There were many other talking points that emerged during an action-packed weekend at Zandvoort, however, from Mercedes’ “risky” strategy en route to a double podium, through to Max Verstappen’s heavy crash and the performances of the super-subs. Here are all the key moments from the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix… Lando Norris ended the first half of the 2026 season with his maiden win of the campaign, leaving him hopeful that he and McLaren could continue to deliver on that promise when the championship resumed. While he had to settle for third in Saturday’s Sprint, the reigning World Champion stormed to pole position for the Grand Prix later in the day – but with heavy rain falling prior to Sunday’s race, there were suddenly doubts over how strategies might unfold. As it was, the showers had eased by the time of lights out and Norris initially held onto P1 off the line – yet he was faced with the challenge of maintaining that position for a second time when the race was restarted following a crash for Max Verstappen (more on which below). This time around it was Antonelli who got the stronger launch, the Italian snatching the lead from Norris. The Briton bided his time, though, and managed to catch the championship leader during the final third of the race where he soon retook the place. Despite questioning whether he should have made a pit stop during a late Virtual Safety Car phase, Norris ultimately needn’t have worried as he crossed the line with a sizeable margin of over 11 seconds from Antonelli to seal his second win in a row. While this has inevitably led to talk over his prospects of a title bid, the McLaren driver was keen to play that down as he commented after the race: “We have to keep working hard. There are still plenty of races, plenty of opportunities for everyone. Keep my head down, keep working and they’ll keep coming.” A double Mercedes podium with a ‘risky’ strategy George Russell had enjoyed the stronger start to the Zandvoort weekend in the Mercedes garage, the Briton having won the Sprint before claiming P2 on the grid for the Grand Prix. However, Antonelli made the better launch in Sunday’s race and overtook his team mate for second place. He then grabbed the lead from Norris at the restart, and from there things initially looked good for the championship leader’s prospects of claiming a win. That pace appeared to slip away later in the race, though, and Norris eventually snatched P1 back from the Italian. During the closing stages, a Virtual Safety Car phase led to a flurry of action in the pits – and with the chasing Ferraris bolting on fresh tyres, Mercedes opted to pit Antonelli with the aim of defending against a potential challenge from the Scuderia. This dropped him to third behind Russell and, as a result, the squad decided to invert the cars to allow Antonelli – on fresher rubber – to move ahead. Russell then faced the task of holding off the Ferrari pair, a feat that he was successful in as the two Silver Arrows drivers secured a double podium in second and third. It was a strategy that Antonelli admitted later on had been “risky”, with the youngster now looking ahead to his home weekend at Monza – one in which he is set to serve a grid penalty for a planned engine change. You wouldn’t have been able to criticise Ferrari’s optimism heading into the weekend – when Lewis Hamilton arrived, he confidently declared that they were on their way to closing up to Mercedes, whilst Charles Leclerc said that the track characteristics in Zandvoort theoretically suited their car. And the Monegasque was right for the Sprint at least, as he fought past Norris to finish P2 and praised the team for their strategy, although Hamilton struggled to make any progress and settled for a distant P7. They went on to qualify fifth and sixth for the main event, with Leclerc getting ahead early in the Grand Prix before they got stuck into a close battle against Russell. As the race unfolded, Hamilton grew increasingly frustrated about being stuck behind his team mate, resulting in Ferrari’s insistence that Leclerc head into the pits. When he eventually followed the order a lap later, Hamilton made the most of the clear air and narrowed the gap to their rivals, culminating in another tense fight with Russell for the final podium position after he lost places to Norris and Antonelli. The questionable strategy and missed opportunities left Hamilton to ask over the radio whether the team were treating him as a “guinea pig”, later suggesting that a faster use of team orders could’ve helped him secure more points for the team. The Dutch Grand Prix was always going to be a bittersweet round for Max Verstappen, who was excited to compete in front of his home fans for one final time before the race dropped off the calendar. It was obvious that Red Bull couldn’t match the pace of the other frontrunning teams as Verstappen and the returning Liam Lawson qualified in P7 and P8 respectively, but with the relative difficulty of overtaking in Zandvoort, it looked like double points could be possible. That hope disappeared shortly after the lights went out when Verstappen, coming around the damp final corner of the circuit, lost control of his car and slammed into the barriers. Debris and one of his wheels were sent flying, prompting a red flag to recover his destroyed challenger. The Dutchman was thankfully uninjured from the massive impact, but it was the opposite of the result he was expecting after he signed a significant contract extension earlier this week, leaving him to sum the entire round up as simply “disappointing”. Liam Lawson finished seventh for Red Bull and, given the pace of the car, that was a fairly solid result for the Kiwi racer. After just missing out on SQ3 on Friday, he made it count over one lap on Saturday and finished one place and one tenth of a second behind his team mate. In the race, he kept his starts clean, was willing to go wheel to wheel with Verstappen and did well to avoid the Dutchman when he spun off in front of him. The only real blot on Lawson’s copybook was a 10-second time penalty for a yellow flag infringement, but given he was 47 seconds clear of Nico Hulkenberg, the penalty did not affect his finishing position. As for Yuki Tsunoda, he was fighting for the top 10 for much of the Grand Prix and came close to scoring for Racing Bulls. Considering how tricky the starting conditions were, he did very well to get off the line cleanly and pick up a place too. He pulled off a brilliant move on Pierre Gasly at one point in the race, his overtaking skills showing no signs of rust. Tsunoda ran out of time to fight with the Frenchman for P10, but finishing the race in 11th and winding up ahead of his team mate was still a strong result. Alisha Palmowski held off a spirited challenge from Alba Larsen in Zandvoort to take the F1 ACADEMY Feature Race win, after starting from pole for Red Bull. The British driver took her fourth win of the season, and in doing so has extended her championship lead over Audi’s Emma Felbermayr. But she had to work hard for it, with Larsen pushing her close as she tried to find a way past for Ferrari. Nina Gademan completed the podium for Alpine despite starting fifth, picking up two places as she opportunistically took advantage of her rivals squabbling ahead on the opening lap. The race was run in the dry, with the rain arriving long after the chequered flag. On Saturday, Payton Westcott won the Reverse Grid Race for Mercedes, her first victory of the season – something she described as a “weight off” her shoulders. The 17-year-old had to survive two Safety Car restarts to claim the win, as she climbed to fifth in the standings. F1 ACADEMY next races in Austin in October. Download the Official F1 AppYour ultimate companion into
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