Pole to flag, and barely a fight
Twenty-four laps. Two position changes in the top ten. George Russell took the Zandvoort sprint from pole a few hours ago and never looked like losing it.
Lando Norris tried. For the opening stretch the McLaren sat in Russell’s mirrors and made the Mercedes work. Then laps nine and ten happened. Norris’s rear end went loose, he bled more than a second in two laps, and the race was effectively settled. Russell had his gap and spent the rest of the race managing it.
Rain hit the circuit seconds after he crossed the line. A few laps earlier and the whole thing would have been rewritten.
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Leclerc’s soft-tyre gamble pays off
Charles Leclerc was the only driver in the top half of the grid to start on soft tyres. Ollie Bearman, down in 17th, was the only other taker. The theory was simple: grab positions early, hang on late.
It worked. Leclerc closed on the struggling Norris and on lap 18 threw the Ferrari down the inside at Turn 1, running the McLaren wide and taking second. His softs held together to the end. He finished 1.3 seconds behind Russell, with Norris 5.1s back in third.
Kimi Antonelli spent the closing laps looking for a way past Norris and never found one. The Italian had already jumped Oscar Piastri at the start, and he half-committed to a dive at Turn 1 on the final lap before backing out. Fourth, 5.5s down. Piastri came home fifth, well adrift.
What it costs Antonelli
Antonelli still leads the championship. He leads it by less than he did on Friday. Russell has spent the first half of this season chasing his own team-mate, and eight sprint points at a circuit where overtaking barely exists is the kind of result that changes a run.
Behind the front group, Max Verstappen held off Lewis Hamilton for sixth after the Ferrari dropped two seconds back at mid-distance and clawed most of it in. Pierre Gasly took the last point in eighth in the upgraded Alpine. Arvid Lindblad beat Liam Lawson, who is filling in for the injured Isack Hadjar at Red Bull this weekend, though on a track this narrow that says less than it looks.
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