The Dutch Grand Prix, held last weekend, was one of the more entertaining grand prixs of the season; with wet/dry action, an interesting convergence of strategies, multiple teams contending for the podium places and great midfield battles, it was a compelling watch. But how did each driver fare?

1st. Lando Norris (McLaren): 9.5/10

The combination of the pressure of a championship battle lifted and the significant improvements of the McLaren in the last three rounds has unleashed a revitalised Lando Norris. He has re-asserted himself as McLaren’s clear team leader, and now taken back to back victories.

After taking a commanding pole, Norris lost the lead on the second start, and once that happened, we looked set for another dominant victory from the front by Antonelli, as we have become so accustomed to this season. However, Norris hung on to his coat tails throughout the first half of the race, performed a daring overtake, and despite Antonelli’s cheap pit stop under the Virtual Safety Car at the end of the race, he still only matched the reigning world champion’s pace despite his far fresher tyres; a testament to Norris’s pace, as was the fact he finished half a minute ahead of teammate Piastri.

The only marks off Norris’s weekend come from the sprint portion, where he burned out his tyres too quickly in an attempt to catch Russell and instead was overtaken by Leclerc in, what this weekend appeared to be a slightly inferior Ferrari.

2nd. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes): 8/10

While this was not Antonelli’s best performance of the season, as it appears Mercedes advantage has been reined in recently, the Italian still put in a solid performance to emerge from the weekend with an extended championship lead.

Outqualified by Russell in both qualifying and the race, Antonelli jumped him on the first start and then overtook Norris on the second, looking set for his seventh victory of the season. However, the Norris/McLaren partnership was simply faster on Sunday.

Whilst the Mercedes team orders at the end of the race seemed unnecessary, Antonelli, on fresher tyres, was always going to overtake Russell; Hamilton’s struggles were largely down to the lower straight line speed of the Ferrari, an issue the championship leader would not have had.

3rd. George Russell (Mercedes): 8/10

Russell receives the same marks as his teammate Antonelli despite finishing behind him, due to the Briton having a more complete weekend all-round, incorporating his sprint pole and victory at the start of the weekend.

He had looked the clear quicker Mercedes until the opening lap on Sunday, where, as in Spa and Hungary, Russell appeared confusingly slow as he lost the position to his team-mate as well as being mugged by Piastri.

Russell, from there, made his somewhat sub-optimal strategy work by jumping Piastri in the stops, as well as holding off both Ferraris at different stages of the race. He might have lost a podium (thanks to some questionable team orders) at the end to Hamilton but was saved by a timely Virtual Safety Car; however, will he have questions of his team following another first lap disaster and unnecessary team orders favouring the other car?

4th. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari): 7.5/10

Hamilton’s weekend got off to a slow start in the sprint portion, hampered by a poor qualifying in an event where it was very difficult to overtake. He recovered it by outqualifying Leclerc on Saturday, qualifying 5th, which was realistically the peak of the car’s performance window behind the McLarens and the Mercedes.

Whilst he lost ground to his teammate off the line, his race pace was superior all afternoon, making his offset strategy work to perfection with his pace. He should have been on course for a podium at the end of the grand prix had it not been for a poorly timed Virtual Safety Car while he was attacking Russell and Leclerc holding him up earlier in the race. Hamilton was not happy on the radio at the chequered flag; one to discuss behind closed doors?

5th. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari): 7/10

Leclerc was one of the standout drivers of the sprint, making the only notable overtake of the event on Norris, but his weekend began to unravel shortly after; curiously, this follows the pattern that at every sprint weekend this season, the Ferrari driver to have finished ahead would end up finishing behind in the ensuing main race.

Leclerc’s race pace was solid, if slower than Hamilton’s, but the main point of contention was his refusal to follow team orders and pit when directly asked to by the team. As Ferrari now appear to have the third fastest car, they must co-operate to have any chance at attacking those in front, something Leclerc was not willing to do in Zandvoort. Hamilton had always played the team game, will he now be less willing to?

6th. Oscar Piastri (McLaren): 5.5/10

While Piastri’s strategy this weekend was clearly suboptimal, his pace was simply nowhere near that of Norris. He dropped off the pace of the leading four in the sprint, and whilst the poor strategy and slow pit-stop did not help his cause in the grand prix, he was on the same strategy as Russell, who was in a similarly paced car, and finished almost a full pit stop behind him.

Piastri has shown flashes of speed this season, most notably in Japan, but has been too far off Norris at many events recently. For a driver with the potential to become a world champion in the future, he must be questioning whether he can do it at McLaren ahead of Norris.

7th. Liam Lawson (Red Bull): 7/10

Lawson finally got his shot at redemption in the main Red Bull team following his disastrous two race stint at the start of 2025 followed by an exceptionally harsh demotion, and the vindication of his struggles when Yuki Tsunoda equally struggled.

The New Zealander’s maturing as a driver since returning to Racing Bulls was on show as he qualified only a tenth off the four time world champion Max Verstappen, kept it all together as his far more experienced teammate found the barriers on the slippery opening lap, and realistically maximised the car’s potential this weekend with a seventh placed finish.

Despite the impressive developments of Nikola Tsolov in Formula 2, Lawson is making the case for him keeping his seat in the junior team for 2027 ironclad.

8th. Nico Hulkenberg (Audi): 8.5/10

An exceptionally impressive performance from the German, who is growing into the season strongly after a difficult start. The upgrades to the Audi have made the car far more competitive, and both Hulkenberg and Bortoleto have put in some strong performances in recent races.

Hulkenberg’s standout moment of the race was his incredible save on the opening lap, as he had milliseconds to avoid his teammate Bortoleto, as his teammate spun in front of him, creating a blinding smokescreen until the last moment. The 39-year-old rolled back the years to avoid contact with his teammate, and followed this up with incredible wheel to wheel racing in the midfield on his way to finishing as best of the rest.

9th. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin): 8.5/10

The Aston Martin upgrades introduced in Hungary proved their worth at the weekend in Zandvoort, as Alonso made a conservative strategy work on his way to finishing in a season’s best ninth place.

It is astounding that at the age of 45, Alonso can take one of the weaker cars on the grid to a points paying position, while still putting up dominant numbers over Lance Stroll. While there is uncertainty regarding Alonso staying on beyond the end of this season, Zandvoort proved that the quality is certainly still there.

10th. Pierre Gasly (Alpine): 6.5/10

Alpine’s upgrades for Zandvoort were only on Gasly’s car, so it was solely on the Frenchman to prove whether the new parts on the car were functional. The Frenchman was best of the rest in the sprint and was the only non-top-team driver to claim a point, and followed it up with a singular point in the race.

Gasly’s race was scuppered by the exhilirating wheel to wheel racing we saw in the midfield, as he lost ground to both Racing Bulls and Hulkenberg, dropping him from a potential 8th to 10th. It was however still a much improved weekend for Alpine in comparison to recent races and should bode well for when both drivers receive the new upgrade package.

11th. Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls): 7/10

Helicoptered in at the last due to Hadjar’s injury, this was Tsunoda’s first competitive running since last season’s finale in Abu Dhabi, and despite being the obvious reserve choice for Racing Bulls, there were obvious unknowns surrounding his performance.

Tsunoda put in a very solid performance to finish just outside of the points in 11th, and proved his wheel to wheel ability carried over into the new cars with a great move on his friend and former teammate Gasly. He definitely did his chances of a future seat no harm, but those opportunities for 2027 appear few and far between.

12th. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls): 6.5/10

Lindblad’s pace was clearly there this weekend, making it into the final part of qualifying in both the sprint and the main race, but his weekend was scuppered by a very harsh penalty that came from the chaos surrounding the red flag following Verstappen’s crash.

His chance of points was scuppered from there, but he still helped out his teammate Tsunoda with an excellent defensive performance against Gasly, and finished just outside of the points in 12th.

13th. Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi): 5.5/10

As with Lindblad, Bortoleto made both Q3 sessions and was clearly rapid, but he came unstuck on the slippery surface at the final corner on the opening lap and it dropped him to the back.

This mistake cost him a chance at points, as he was ahead of teammate Hulkenberg at this stage, and he could not recover to the top ten after this. His pace was strong, however, and it does still show potential for Audi in the upcoming races.

14. Franco Colapinto (Alpine): 6/10

Colapinto did not have the same upgrade package that Gasly had, and was therefore always set to struggle for a decent result; qualifying within two tenths of his teammate was therefore impressive. He fell foul of the same penalty that Lindblad did, and therefore was always set to struggle for a decent result. The only drawback of his weekend was qualifying seven tenths off of Gasly in SQ2 on Friday, where he must have made a mistake on his lap, but it is unlikely he would have qualified much further up without the upgrades anyway.

15. Sergio Perez (Cadillac): 6/10

As always this season, it is very difficult to grade the Cadillac drivers, as their car is by far and away the slowest on the grid at the moment. The only representative means of quantifying their weekends is the qualifying head to head, where Bottas has been dominant in recent races, yet even then we do not know whether either has been running experimental setups to try and boost performance.

16. Carlos Sainz (Williams): 3/10

Sainz did not cap off his hefty new contract signing with a good weekend at Zandvoort, as he was the slower Williams driver throughout, knocked out in both Q1 sessions when Albon progressed. He finished an anonymous race (more the fault of the car’s lack of performance) by causing a needless collision with teammate Albon, for which he was solely culpable. This, along with a ten second penalty for the collision, pushed him behind even the Cadillac of Perez.

DNF. Alex Albon (Williams): 6.5/10

Albon had a solid weekend, showing the pace he had last season as he outqualified Sainz twice, something that has been rare this season. However, his race was ended in the closing laps in the aforementioned collision with his teammate. As with the Cadillacs, there was little else to judge the Thai driver on this weekend beyond his teammate comparison, as the Williams languished as the second slowest car.

DNF. Esteban Ocon (Haas): 7/10

Similarly to Albon, Ocon bucked the season’s trend of being outqualified by Bearman, as he added to his performance in Hungary by comfortably outqualifying Bearman in both sessions. The Frenchman was up with Alonso before the car’s lack of pace and differing strategies dropped him back, and he eventually retired with a mechanical failure.

DNF. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin): 5.5/10

It is difficult to grade Stroll’s weekend, but his gaps to Alonso in the qualifying sessions were serviceable, especially considering Alonso was one of the standout drivers this weekend. He retired due to a mechanical failure, and had significant damage after running over debris on the opening lap in the chaos at the final corner, so his race was effectively ended there.

DNF. Oliver Bearman (Haas): N/A

It is impossible to rank Bearman’s race seeing as he was unable to take the start due to a mechanical failure on the second lap to the grid.

DNF. Max Verstappen (Red Bull): 3/10

A solid sprint weekend does not excuse the rookie mistake that Verstappen made on the opening lap of the grand prix, running a wheel on the slippery kerb and crashing into the barriers. The mistakes are becoming too frequent recently for the four-time champion, and his gap to Lawson in qualifying should also have been larger.