A Chaotic Goodbye to Zandvoort
All photos submitted by Keerthana Gopi.
The final goodbye to Zandvoort after five years of racing was about as chaotic as it could be. The 4.259 km circuit has 14 corners and 72 laps to the finish line. Lots of news preceded the race week: Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon both re-signed with Williams, and Max Verstappen ended all rumors by re-signing with Red Bull until the end of 2030. Liam Lawson replaced Isack Hadjar at Rebull after Hadjar suffered a wrist injury, and Yuki Tsunoda replaced Lawson at Racing Bulls for the race.
Sprint Race
The Dutch Grand Prix is a Sprint Race with George Russell claiming pole position during the sprint qualifying, beating out Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc by the very last second. Piastri and Anontelli rounded out the top five for the qualifying. Russell was able to keep his lead during the Sprint Race and pulled ahead of both Norris and Leclerc. Leclerc was then able to overtake Norris on lap 18 of 24, and while Norris struggled with pressure from Anontelli right behind, he was able to cross the finish line in third place.
Qualifying
Norris qualified in pole position for the race after risking one last lap with worsening weather on the horizon. He beat out both the Mercedes drivers, Russell qualifying in second and Antonelli in third, with Piastri in P4 and Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton right behind. Verstrappen, Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Arvid Lindblad rounded out the top ten in that order.
Race
Norris started on pole and pulled ahead of Russell, who lost his second place to teammate Kimi Antonelli while defending against the Ferrari of Leclerc. Piastri lost P4 to Leclerc, and Hamilton was right behind Piastri. The two Red Bulls almost made contact on the opening lap as they went side by side through Turn 3. Verstrappen’s race came to an end at the final turn of lap one as he drove through a wet patch, spinning out and crashing into the barrier. The car was severely damaged, with the front tire popping off and debris all over the track. Verstrappen himself was not injured, and none of the drivers behind got pulled into this crash. But right behind was Bortoleto, who spun a full 360 degrees on the same wet patch but was able to get the car back under control and continue. Verstrappen’s crash put the race under a red flag, and all of the drivers filed into the pit lane.
The restart also had its share of chaos as Bearman’s car shut down mid-formation lap. Marshals were able to move the car to an exit lane quickly, and the race resumed. Antonelli pulled ahead of Norris for the lead, and right behind them Piastri was able to push forward ahead of Russell for third place, but a slow pit stop on lap 19 pushed Piastri back behind Russell again.
On lap 27, the midfield battles got heated as Gasly attempted to overtake Lindblad but locked up during a turn, and this allowed Hulkenberg to get ahead of Gasly. Hulkenberg was then able to overtake Lindblad with his newer tires, and right behind them was Tsunoda, who pulled a crazy move and overtook Gasly on the inner corner of Turn 7.
Back to the front half of the grid, we had Leclerc sweep past Piastri after multiple laps spent chasing him, and his teammate Hamilton pulling ahead of Piastri on the very next lap. Most of the top 5 on the track filed into the pit lane, and we saw some order changes. Lewis Hamilton was able to pull to the lead with Antonelli and Norris behind, Russell in P4 and Charles in P5. On lap 53 of 72, Norris took the outside corner of Turn 1 and got ahead of Antonelli. Lewis Hamilton was the only person in between Norris and a race win, and with only a 0.2-second gap between them, Norris overtook Hamilton on lap 54.
On lap 55, there was a Virtual Safety Car as Esteban Ocon retired from the race. This was a great time for teams to pit, so Ferrari called Hamilton and Leclerc in for back-to-back tire changes. Anontelli also changed tires to softs in hopes of catching up to Norris. On Turn 1 of lap 68, both Williams cars made contact and retired from the race, a very sad start to both teammates re-signing with the team. Even on the very last lap, the Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc tried to get past George Russell in third place but weren’t able to. Lando Norris won the race, and Kimi Antonelli and George Russell rounded out the podium with the two Ferraris right behind them, making up the top five.
It’s a sad goodbye to a race that’s always brought out a good fight between the drivers, but hopefully we come back to the Dutch Grand Prix one day. For now, lights out and away we go to Monza.
