2026 Dutch GP: Norris wins, Verstappen crashes on lap 1

Lando Norris has won the 2026 Dutch GP for McLaren. Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished second and George Russell third, both driving for Mercedes. The race wasn't decided at the start. The turning point came in the second half, when Norris, on fresh hard tyres, passed first Antonelli and then Lewis Hamilton and led from lap 54 to the chequered flag.

You'll find all the data on the race at Circuit Park Zandvoort on our 2026 Dutch GP race page. There you can also relive the entire race in 3D.

It had rained shortly before the start. Air temperatures ranged from 16.6 to 19.5 degrees, track temperatures from 25.8 to 38.2 degrees. Race Control initially sent the field away behind the Safety Car. Norris led from pole position, but the home favourite's race was over after one lap. Max Verstappen had started from 7th place. In the banked final corner his Red Bull ran onto the inside kerb, snapped away and hit the wall hard. Before that he had made contact with Hamilton and Liam Lawson. Verstappen reported that he was okay. Because of the debris on track, Race Control showed the red flag on lap 2.

All the teams changed tyres during the stoppage. Norris went onto used softs, both Mercedes stayed on mediums, and Oscar Piastri switched to hards. At the restart Antonelli got the better of Norris on the inside at Turn 1, while Piastri moved past Russell into 3rd place. The lap-leader statistics have Antonelli in front from lap 5.

Norris had no answer to the Mercedes in the first stint. After the first round of stops Hamilton, who stayed out longer on softs, led from lap 22 to 24. After that Antonelli was back in front until lap 39.

Russell was the first of the leading group to stop. His switch to hards on lap 17 dropped him from 4th to 6th. Piastri came in a lap later and spent 20.2 seconds in the pit lane, the longest of the leading group, slipping from 3rd to 6th. Antonelli and Norris switched to hards on lap 21. After that Antonelli was second and Norris third.

From here the race played into Norris's hands. “Once we put the Hard tyres on, the car came alive”, he said after the race. Mercedes brought Antonelli and Russell in for the second time on lap 40. Antonelli dropped from 1st to 4th, Russell from 3rd to 6th. Norris took the lead and stayed out until lap 47. After his stop he was third, but his hard tyres were seven laps fresher than Antonelli's.

Hamilton led from lap 48. The Ferrari driver was still on the set of hards he had taken on lap 25. Norris passed first Antonelli and then Hamilton and led from lap 54. His overcut clearly worked: because McLaren stopped later than Mercedes, Norris had the tyre advantage in the phase before the Virtual Safety Car, and he made it count.

Ocon's retirement triggered a Virtual Safety Car from lap 55 to 57. Many teams used it for a cheap stop. Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Piastri switched to softs on lap 55, Antonelli a lap later. Hamilton dropped from 2nd to 4th, Antonelli from 2nd to 3rd. Norris and Russell stayed out on their hard tyres.

According to the team, Mercedes pitted Antonelli to cover him against the Ferraris. The team then had its two drivers swap positions. As a result Antonelli finished second and Russell third. Despite his older tyres, Norris safely managed his lead to the flag.

Ferrari gained nothing from the fresh softs. Hamilton finished fourth, Leclerc fifth. Leclerc did at least set the fastest lap of the race. He had changed tyres three times after the restart: to mediums on lap 21, to hards on lap 43 and to softs on lap 55.

Piastri's strategy worked out worst of all. After the restart he changed tyres on laps 18, 44 and 55, as often as Leclerc and Antonelli. The early stop on lap 18 alone cost him three places, and he never got back into podium contention. From grid position 4 he finished sixth.

Six cars failed to finish, including both Haas F1 Team cars:

• Max Verstappen (Red Bull), lap 1: crash in the final corner, followed by the red flag.
• Oliver Bearman (Haas), after lap 2: the engine cut out on the formation lap after the stoppage and Bearman parked the car. According to Bearman, the exact cause was still unclear.
• Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), after lap 45: according to Stroll, the car had no speed at all and was sliding a lot. The team suspected damage from the opening phase.
• Esteban Ocon (Haas), after lap 52: he stopped with a technical failure. Haas suspected the power unit was to blame. His car triggered the Virtual Safety Car from lap 55.
• Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac F1 Team), after lap 61: a hydraulic problem on the rear wing stopped him.
• Alexander Albon (Williams), after lap 66: the collision with team-mate Carlos Sainz had damaged his floor. “My floor was pretty damaged, so we had to box”, Albon explained. He was nevertheless classified 17th.

The stewards had a busy afternoon. Arvid Lindblad of the RB F1 Team and Franco Colapinto of the Alpine F1 Team each received a drive-through penalty for overtaking under yellow at the crash site in Turn 14. Lindblad dropped from 8th to 20th as a result and fought his way back up to 12th. Colapinto slipped from 10th to 20th. He later picked up an extra ten seconds for another yellow-flag infringement and finished 14th. Ocon was also noted in Turn 14, but the stewards did not investigate the case further.

Lawson received the same ten-second time penalty for a yellow-flag infringement. He kept 7th place nonetheless. Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto were investigated for allegedly leaving the pit lane under red. The stewards intended to review these cases after the race.

The intra-team battle at Williams ended at Turn 1 in the closing stages. Sainz braked on the inside over a bump, locked his wheels and hit Albon. Debris on track led to a second Virtual Safety Car on lap 70. The stewards put the blame entirely on Sainz and gave him a ten-second penalty. Sainz himself called it a “Fair penalty” and apologised to Albon.

There was no further action over an incident between Piastri and Hamilton at Turn 1 on lap 36, nor over several reports from the first lap. These concerned Albon, Verstappen, Sainz, Hamilton and Colapinto failing to follow Race Control instructions.

Alongside Norris, the winner of the day was above all Fernando Alonso. He started from 18th and finished ninth. He was the only driver in the points to make it through on one stop after the restart. He lasted 32 laps on softs and didn't switch to hards until lap 34. That gained him nine places, more than anyone else. Nico Hülkenberg went from 13th to 8th and scored four points for Audi. Sergio Pérez gained seven places, from 22nd to 15th. Pierre Gasly took the final point in tenth. Yuki Tsunoda narrowly missed out in eleventh.

The losers were Verstappen, after his crash at his home race, and Haas with their double retirement. Bortoleto started ninth, dropped to 20th after his stop on lap 11 and eventually finished 13th. Piastri lost two places.

In the 2026 standings Antonelli remains top with 242 points. Russell and Hamilton now have 183 points each, with Russell moving up to 2nd. On 159 points Norris has overtaken Leclerc (155) and is now fourth, while Verstappen stays sixth with 112 points. In the constructors' championship Mercedes lead with 425 points ahead of Ferrari (338) and McLaren (265).