Verstappen’s goodbye lasted one lap
Zandvoort spent all weekend waiting for a Verstappen party. It got a red flag instead.
The Dutchman lost the back of his RB22 at the final corner as the second lap began, ran out of road and buried the car in the barriers. Debris across the track, the car sitting in a bad place, race suspended on the spot. Verstappen radioed in straight away to say he was not hurt, which was about the only good news the orange grandstands got this afternoon.
He had been running seventh, and moments earlier he had traded paint with stand-in team-mate Liam Lawson. Rain before the start left the surface damp, then it dried enough that all 22 cars gambled on slicks. What nobody solved was the spray still hanging over the last two corners. Gabriel Bortoleto spun violently at the same spot and somehow kept his Audi out of the wall. Verstappen did not get that lucky.
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Norris never lost the lead
Lando Norris was already in front when the race stopped, having turned his second pole in a row into a clean getaway. The restart changed nothing. He crossed the line 11.5 seconds clear of Kimi Antonelli, with George Russell third for Mercedes a day after winning Saturday’s sprint from pole.
Ferrari took the next two places, Lewis Hamilton half a second ahead of Charles Leclerc. Oscar Piastri was sixth, half a minute behind his team-mate. Lawson salvaged seventh for Red Bull, 80 seconds down and the only car left carrying the team’s colours. Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly completed the points a lap adrift.
The attrition did not stop with Verstappen. Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Ollie Bearman all failed to see the flag, leaving 17 classified finishers.
A circuit signing off badly
This was the final Dutch Grand Prix for now, with Zandvoort giving up its place on the calendar. A track built into the dunes, sold out every year, and its last act was its most famous driver climbing out of a wrecked car while the marshals swept up.
Verstappen had put his name to a Red Bull extension through 2030 only three days earlier. Norris leaves the Netherlands with back-to-back wins and a weekend that never once got away from him.
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