Oscar Piastri won a dramatic Dutch Grand Prix as his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris’ championship chances were dealt a huge blow as he retired late on at Zandvoort.

Norris was on course to finish second behind Piastri until an oil leak with eight laps remaining forced him to retire in a huge moment in this year’s title race, with the British driver now 34 points behind Piastri with nine rounds to go.

Piastri led from start to finish and overcame the pressure of three Safety Car restarts to take a crucial seventh win of the season from home hero Max Verstappen.

“It feels good, obviously. I controlled the race when I needed to, and obviously it was incredibly unfortunate for Lando at the end,” said Piastri.

“But I felt like I was in control of that one and just used the pace when I needed to. That was a bit of a different race to 12 months ago, so very happy with all the work we’ve done to try to improve around here, and very satisfied to come out on top.”

Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar claimed a surprise maiden F1 podium with a superb performance, having been running in fourth for most of the race only to jump into the top three after Norris’ retirement.

It was a disastrous day for Ferrari as Lewis Hamilton crashed out by himself early on when light rain began to fall, as he understeered into the wall at the banked Turn 3 and suffered his first retirement as a Ferrari driver.

Later on, Charles Leclerc was hit by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, also at Turn 3, meaning both of the Ferraris did not see the chequered flag ahead of their home event at Monza next weekend.

Antonelli did cross the line in sixth behind Mercedes team-mate George Russell and Williams’ Alex Albon but was given 15 seconds worth of penalties for colliding into Leclerc and speeding in the pit lane.

Oliver Bearman took a career-best sixth, ahead of Aston Martin duo Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and the other Haas of Esteban Ocon.

Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson were both running in the top 10 until they made contact on a Safety Car restart, resulting in punctures for both drivers.

Sainz was surprisingly given a 10-second time penalty but was running towards the back regardless.

Title-defining day at Zandvoort?

The closeness of the McLaren pair on outright speed meant any retirement, through mistakes or reliability problems, was always going to be massive in the context of the title race.

Having pipped Norris to pole position by 0.012s on Saturday, Piastri got a great launch off the line and never looked back while Verstappen overtook Norris with a spectacular move on the first lap.

Norris cruised past the Red Bull driver on Lap 9 but now trailed Piastri by five seconds. Once in second, Norris whittled down the gap to three seconds until a Safety Car for Hamilton’s crash neutralised things as the front-runners all pitted together with 50 laps remaining.

Most drivers were expected to not pit so it was a straight fight between the McLarens on the track. Norris pushed hard but was never able to get within DRS range of Piastri, who controlled the race wonderfully.

Antonelli’s misjudgement against Leclerc caused a second Safety Car, so everyone pitted for fresh rubber once again.

McLaren put their drivers on the hard tyres, whereas the likes of Verstappen took softs but the Dutchman was unable to challenge Norris on the restart.

Once again, Piastri withstood the pressure from Norris after the Safety Car then got a big slice of season fortune when his McLaren team-mate slowed down on Lap 65 of 72 and came to a halt at Turn 9 due to an oil leak.

Norris sat on the grassy Zandvoort banks with his head down, knowing he now faces an uphill battle to become world champion.

The incident meant a third Safety Car of the race and Piastri held off Verstappen in the last five laps to claim a big victory.

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