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Piastri had shown encouraging speed throughout the Zandvoort weekend, qualifying narrowly behind Norris in both sprint qualifying and grand prix qualifying before initially putting himself into podium contention on Sunday. The Australian made strong progress at the restart following the opening-lap red flag, jumping Charles Leclerc before producing an impressive move on George Russell at Turn 7 to take third. However, his race began to unravel after the opening stint, with Piastri struggling for pace on the hard tyres and also losing significant time through two slow McLaren pit stops. Leclerc eventually passed him for fourth into Turn 1 on Lap 34 before Lewis Hamilton followed through with a near-identical move a lap later, leaving Piastri sixth and unable to match the pace of the Ferraris ahead. Asked afterwards what had gone wrong, Piastri admitted he had few answers. “Disappointing obviously,” he told Sky Sports F1 when summing up his race. “I think the first lap was good, or after the red flag was good, and then the first stint felt okay. “And then after that I just had had nothing. So I don’t know why, but plenty to look into.” Pressed on whether his difficulties had been related to a particular tyre, Piastri offered an even more blunt assessment. “Pace,” he explained when asked about his main issue in the race. “I don’t really have any more answers than that at the moment.” View this post on Instagram His struggles stood in stark contrast to Norris, who also faced a challenging race but ultimately produced the pace required to overcome Kimi Antonelli and claim his second consecutive grand prix victory. Norris lost the lead to Antonelli at the second start before the pair became locked in a strategic fight through the middle stages of the race. The reigning world champion eventually used fresher tyres to close onto the Mercedes before passing Antonelli at Turn 1 on Lap 54, later taking the outright lead from Hamilton and going on to win by 11.5 seconds. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella admitted the tyre behaviour had been difficult to understand throughout the weekend and pointed specifically to Piastri’s second stint as an example of how dramatically performance could fall away. “The tyres they were not straightforward this weekend,” he told Sky Sports F1. “Some teams were very good on softs. I think we were a little bit better on the hard tyres. “And at times the tyres could just go off completely, like it happened in the second stint for Oscar. So it was difficult to understand. “I think Lando probably, he just did a better job than anybody else from this point of view, and he deserved the victory.” Stella also suggested the conditions played particularly well to Norris’ strengths, especially when grip levels became difficult to manage. “We know that Lando, when we have these tyres that actually don’t have as much grip, is when I think he expresses his best talent compared to other drivers,” he said. “So the tyres today were a little tricky. We saw with Antonelli, we saw with the second stint of Oscar, that at times it was difficult to switch them off. “But I think Lando when he deals with hard tyres and slippery tyres, then it’s kind of his natural ground. So obviously this is a talent that he is exploiting.” McLaren had made changes following Saturday’s sprint after lacking the outright pace to challenge at the front, with Stella crediting those adjustments for helping Norris fight for victory. “I think Lando was right when he said it’s not going to be straightforward,” he said. “I think the race pace in Hungary was more convincing. Here, if we look back at the sprint race, we were not the fastest car. Ferrari, I think, was the fastest car. “All teams are very close. I think we have a great Formula 1, and it’s good that McLaren is part of the cars that can fight for the win. “We adjusted some aspects of the driving style. Of the way we could use the tyres in the race. And I think this paid off. “So a deserved victory from this point of view thanks to the work that improved the situation from where we were in the sprint.” Norris believed his ability to manage the tyres and recognise the right moment to attack Antonelli proved decisive. “I drive to the best I can. I know I have to make good decisions at times. Today was certainly a day I made a lot of good decisions,” he said. “From strategy, tyre saving, picking my moments, knowing when to push, when to save. There’s a lot that goes on in the cockpit of a race car. “It’s not just push flat out every single lap to the maximum. So this was certainly my winning move. The winning moment in the race. “I’m not sure if I would have won if I didn’t get ahead of Kimi here. My one opportunity, I made the most of it. And I won the race because of that. “So I think I maximised my race today. I made the most of it. View this post on Instagram “I certainly made my life tough today with a bad start. And we need to understand what happened. “But we did the job we came in to do, which is to win. So I’m very pleased.” For Piastri, the result continues a difficult 2026 and means his winless run will now stretch beyond a year, having last stood on the top step at the Dutch Grand Prix nearly 12 months ago. His sixth-place finish also leaves him seventh in the drivers’ championship on 104 points, 138 behind leader Antonelli and 55 adrift of Norris, who has climbed to fourth and sits 83 points off the championship lead. That gap has not stopped McLaren from retaining hope of a late-season title charge, with Norris now closer to Antonelli than Max Verstappen was to Piastri at the equivalent stage last season before ultimately closing the deficit to finish just two points behind Norris. Stella, though, remained cautious about looking too far ahead. “Before we fill this gap, we have to have so many of these good weekends,” he explained “I’d rather at the moment focus on executing good weekends and bringing more upgrades to the car. “And then after some of that, if we are able to, then we will look where we are in the championship.”