Piastri takes mighty title lead as Norris' race goes up in smoke

For a weekend that opened with such high hopes of fresh starts and title charges, the Dutch Grand Prix could not, for some, have borne more bitter fruit.

- Giles Richards

Oscar Piastri did take a dominant win but his teammate and title rival, Lando Norris, was left head bowed, disconsolate, alone in the blustery dunes beside the North Sea.

Similarly, the seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was forced to trudge back to the paddock, his Ferrari in pieces by the side of the track after an uncharacteristic, unforced error.

This was sport as a cruel mistress writ large at Zandvoort. Piastri's performance was as admirable and assured as any he had delivered, the 24-year-old Australian as unflappable as ever to deliver a consummate pole-to-flag victory. Indeed it never looked in doubt from the moment he held his lead through turn one, even through a brief period of light rain and three safety-car restarts.

But in his wake fate had decreed the most damnable fortune for Norris. The British driver had entered the weekend fired up for the title run-in, with just nine points between the two protagonists. He had noted that now it was getting serious, with nine races to go after the meeting in Zandvoort, every point would matter. Dropping a few he might consider a setback but a DNF to his teammate's victory was surely the veritable white whale of Norris's nightmares.