Five quick takeaways from the F1 Dutch GP

Norris and McLaren are still alive and well

Lando Norris is the last person who needs a reminder of what can happen in the second half of the championship. On the scene of his worst heartbreak in 2025, when Norris' championship looked dead and buried after a retirement, the defending champion is now the hunter once more after using an upgraded McLaren to start chipping away at the lead of Kimi Antonelli.

Norris backed up a first win of the campaign in Hungary with pole in the Netherlands, though McLaren's comparatively poor long run pace in the sprint dampened expectations in the grand prix proper.

In a chaotic opening phase, Norris lost his lead to Antonelli on lap 2's standing restart. But on soft tyres, the Briton stayed within striking distance and looked imperious once the frontrunners switched to the hard compound.

On lap 54 of 72 Norris swept around the outside of a defending Antonelli into Turn 1, before dispatching Lewis Hamilton - who had yet to stop - on the back straight to take the lead of the race, which he would comfortably retain until the finish.

Lando Norris, McLaren

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Norris' second consecutive win brought his gap to Antonelli down from 90 to 83 points, which is still a huge margin. But few will argue the 26-year-old has hit a rich vein of form, while McLaren's rolling car development has turned its MCL40 into a potential serial winner. When will Mercedes be able to respond with its own upgrade package?

- Filip Cleeren

Lawson made the most of his sudden Red Bull return

We can’t know for certain, but it would hardly be surprising if Liam Lawson had hoped that, after being told he would lose his Red Bull seat following last year’s Chinese Grand Prix, just two races into the season, life might one day give him another chance to measure himself against Max Verstappen as his team-mate.

Almost a year and a half later, and having rebuilt his reputation with a strong return to Racing Bulls, that chance arrived when Isack Hadjar suffered a wrist injury, and Lawson grabbed it with both hands.

He took things steadily on Friday, but came alive on Saturday with an excellent qualifying performance — given the reality of Red Bull’s 2026 car — to take eighth, just behind Verstappen and only 0.115s away. Yes, Zandvoort is a relatively short lap, but Hadjar had only been within that margin of the Dutchman on three occasions this year, across the 12 times he was outqualified by Verstappen.

Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls, Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing

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Verstappen’s crash shortly after the start left Lawson leading Red Bull’s effort. While he couldn’t match the pace of the top six, the New Zealander delivered a solid race to finish a lonely seventh.

It won’t earn him a permanent return to Red Bull, and his Racing Bulls future for 2027 remains uncertain. But Lawson made the most of his unexpected second chance — and may just have put himself back on the radar of other teams.

- Federico Faturos

Yuki Tsunoda narrowly misses top 10 on unexpected F1 return

Going up against Verstappen again at Red Bull was a tall order for Lawson, but Yuki Tsunoda faced an even tougher challenge.

Standing in for Lawson at Racing Bulls, the reserve driver had never driven 2026-spec Formula 1 machinery, which is dramatically different from last year’s in every area – particularly the novel energy management requirements.

Tsunoda unsurprisingly lagged behind impressive rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad by over eight tenths in the weekend’s sole free practice session but gradually reduced his deficit to about four tenths in sprint qualifying and one hundredth to one tenth in the main qualifying session.

Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls

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The Japanese racer then performed a convincing drive from 12th on the grid. He seemingly didn’t put a foot wrong, even with two standing starts to handle, and performed a breathtaking move on Alpine’s Pierre Gasly on his way to 11th position under the chequered flag.

Lindblad getting a drive-through penalty early on for a yellow-flag infringement makes the comparison difficult, but Tsunoda still did well, and it would be interesting to see what he makes of a potential second outing if Hadjar’s recovery happens to be slower than planned.

- Ben Vinel

No fairytale Dutch GP ending after Verstappen crash

There was once a time where victory at the Dutch Grand Prix for Verstappen seemed as guaranteed as a victory would be for a Premier League side against one from the fourth division. The Red Bull driver won three on the bounce at his home race from 2021 to 2023 and during that period of Verstappen dominance, there was nothing stopping him.

But then came McLaren, who respectively ended that streak in 2024 and 2025 via Norris and Oscar Piastri, yet 2026 offered one final opportunity for Verstappen to once again taste home success as Zandvoort is set to drop off the F1 calendar.

Crashed car of Red Bull Racing's Dutch driver Max Verstappen

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Yet the fairytale ending wasn’t to be, as Verstappen crashed on the opening lap in front of the ‘Orange Army’. The four-time world champion was never really in contention anyway, as he finished sixth in the sprint race and started Sunday’s grand prix in seventh.

He reckons the circuit exposed the weaknesses of the RB22, which endured balance problems at the seaside venue. Not what he would have hoped for given, a, it was his home race and also, b, it being the weekend he has signed a new contract.

Verstappen now has 11 more chances to stop 2026 from being his first winless season since joining Red Bull in 2016.

- Ed Hardy

Honda's new engine won't be enough to spark Aston Martin's revival

After Aston Martin's major car upgrade in Hungary just before the summer break, the Silverstone-based team had hoped Honda's new power unit would deliver as big a step forward as the chassis appeared to have made. However, it soon became clear that Honda's updated power unit, developed with the help of the ADUO after starting 2026 with the worst engine, was not a major improvement, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll both eliminated in the first stage of the sprint shootout and qualifying.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

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The drivers and Adrian Newey were quick to point to the chassis improvements on Saturday, while admitting that more progress was still needed on the power unit side. Stroll was particularly candid, saying outright that the team was lacking a lot of power, while Honda itself admitted there was still more work to do to give its drivers the confidence they needed.

The alternative strategy and very low tyre degradation allowed Alonso to run in the points for much of the race and, in fact, secure his first top-10 finish on the road this year. As the Spaniard pointed out, Aston Martin was previously much further away from the front, but even with this strong result and a chassis that appears to have genuinely improved, the engine remains the team's weak point and, for now, does not look capable of enabling a major comeback for the green outfit.

- Jose Carlos de Celis