Zandvoort: Ferrari double zero, McLaren wastes away. First podium for Hadjar

The one-two that seemed inevitable thus dissolved, leaving the way clear for Verstappen to take the place of honour and giving Isack Hadjar the first podium of his career. Up to that point, the margin between Piastri and Norris had remained stable at 1.3 seconds, with the two comrades engaged in a chronometric challenge of fast laps.

Also disappearing from the radar were their main rivals, Leclerc and Russell, who from the start of the seventy-two laps were behind none other than debutant Hadjar. Leclerc's only real flash came with the - disputed - overtaking move on Russell, executed with a manoeuvre beyond the track limits and for that reason postponed to post-race investigation. Shortly afterwards, however, on orders from the Mercedes wall, Russell gave up his position to Antonelli to protect the tyres damaged by contact with Leclerc himself. But the development of the facts changed the cards many times.

The race, coinciding with Pirelli's 500th Grand Prix as sole tyre supplier, opened with a risky choice by Red Bull: soft tyres for both drivers, Verstappen and Tsunoda, unlike the rest of the grid. The idea was clear: to take advantage of the early grip to try and get in between the two McLarens on a track where overtaking is never a foregone conclusion.

The start, however, rewarded Piastri, who immediately took the lead. Verstappen attempted an attack on Norris, but a spectacular traverse slowed him down, allowing him to hold second position but definitively missing the chance to prevail over the leader as well. The gamble of the soft tyres ensured brilliance in the early laps, but did not hold up for long. Shortly afterwards, on lap nine, Norris had an easy time passing the home champion, a sign of the difficulties Red Bull is experiencing and which not even the support of the orange-clad crowd was able to mask.

The holidays seemed to have energised him. So much so that that patina of bad mood and excess pressure seen in the first phase of the season seemed to have been archived. Instead, in the race, lap 23, the seven-time world champion, when it started to rain and he was waiting to come back in, pushed too hard at the wrong time and, with a strange mistake, hit a small wall quite hard. A dynamic where he loses his rear end is unclear but enough to ruin his race and bring out the safety car. Iconic is the image in which he gets out of the single-seater and picks up the 'wreckage' of his accident, helping clear the carriageway. A zero points result that no one would have imagined, however, given that all in all in the race he was at least able to float in the usual vicinity of the middle of the points zone.

In addition to self-elimination, however, Hamilton also impacted on the performance of Leclerc, who was penalised, even losing one position, because he had just attempted an undercut, which was thwarted by the safety car's exit.

After this 'hoax', Leclerc, moreover, would have to go all the way to the end with the anxiety of being penalised by an investigation that would be dealt with after the chequered flag because of his suspicious overtaking of Russell.

Alonso, ageless experience

Another page of the day was written by Fernando Alonso. At 44, he is the veteran of the grid, a seniority record not seen since the days of Graham Hill, and he continues to show the class that has always distinguished him. The Asturian, eighth under the Dutch chequered flag, is overtaken for the first time by Stroll, seventh, is just an anomaly, an exception that is difficult to repeat. The no longer age-old but for some aficionado 'eternally young' driver from Oviedo in fact usually 'confirms the rule' at every Formula 1 Sunday, holding up Aston Martin for years with solid evidence. Even this weekend, however, team-mate Lance Stroll had made a very complicated start, with two nasty 'wall' crashes in practice and qualifying, and 'crowned' by contact with Bortoleto in the race, who lost the front wing endplate on the first lap. It is a serious fact, which can be punished afterwards, even if it is a rookie. The Brazilian, in fact, continued to 'run' with the broken wing endplate, which then came off, causing alarm to Ollie Bearman who, via radio, reported his fears about possible debris to his team. For Aston, however, once again, its fate, despite the fact that it is a team that could be a protagonist in 2026, if only because of the innovations that Adrian Newey's genius can bring, remains entrusted almost entirely to the experienced Spanish driver.

Not forgetting a double duel in which Russell seemed to have got the worst of Leclerc, three quarters of the way through the race Antonelli, almost as if he had unconsciously set out to avenge him, after Leclerc's return to the track from the tyre change (not entirely shared by the driver), time a handful of corners and he finds himself on the inside in a very close corner. Much ambition for the young Italian, no apparent fault for Leclerc: there is contact and Leclerc slams hard into the wall, destroying the single-seater. It will cause much debate: on the one hand the Monegasque seemed to be lapping well and the call from the race wall already condemned him to give up his position on Russell. Then when something goes wrong at Maranello, it doesn't make economics: today everything went wrong and the collision at turn 3 cannot be described as anything other than an accident within the limits of motorsport acceptability. For his part, Antonelli is not living this moment well, in which performance is struggling and even after the accident the car has problems.

Leclerc retired and Antonelli arrived at the finish where he could have taken home points, but between problems and two penalties totalling fifteen seconds also completely dampened his Sunday. Ferrari thus came out with a double zero that weighed heavily, aggravated by the fact that shortly afterwards Norris's McLaren stopped with its engine smoking: a retirement that changed the face of the race and opened the door wide to Hadjar's first career podium.