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Williams’ difficult campaign continued as Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were adrift of the fight for points even before clumsily clashing late in the race. There was no malice involved, as Sainz simply locked up heavily into the first corner on worn tires and slid into Albon’s car. Sainz was correctly penalized for the incident and held up his hands, though it mattered little to the overall prospects in the race considering the performance limitations of the FW48. “Sorry to Alex and the team for the contact at the end of the race,” Sainz said. “I had very worn hard tires and braked over the bump in turn 1, locked up, and couldn’t stop the car in time. It was obviously the last thing I wanted to end an already tough weekend.” While the FW48 lacked absolute performance for points, Albon was nonetheless frustrated at being in the mix with Fernando Alonso early on—he went on to finish ninth—before the strategy intervened. “We need to review our strategy as we were fighting Fernando and he finished ahead—I think we pitted too early on the first stop, reacting to a potential undercut rather than running our own race,” Albon said. “That left us catching a lot of blue flags and stuck in dirty air, which made my second stint messy.” Tsunoda misses points on F1 comeback Yuki Tsunoda performed credibly on his (planned) one-off return—and possibly final race—in Formula 1, filling in for Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls, who in turn was in Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull. Tsunoda pulled off a lunge on ex-teammate Pierre Gasly into Schievlak and was in the mix for points, but narrowly missed out by classifying 11th. “I missed being out there, racing wheel to wheel and making overtakes, so it was great to experience that again,” Tsunoda said. “We were really close to the points and just missed out, which was a shame, but overall it’s been an incredible few days.” Lawson, meanwhile, was the sole Red Bull in the bulk of the race following Max Verstappen’s early accident. Lawson, who has a gravelly excursion on the wet lap to the grid, maintained seventh place throughout the race, with a time penalty due to a yellow flag infringement having no impact on his result. The wretched nature of his short-lived two-race stint in 2025 meant it marked Lawson’s first points in Red Bull colors. Alonso oldest points scorer since 1974 Fernando Alonso became the first driver aged 45 or older to score points in a Formula 1 race since 1974 by classifying ninth. Aston Martin, which brought a heavily revised chassis to the previous event in Hungary, added further components to the AMR26 in the Netherlands, while Honda introduced its Spec 2 power unit. That only brought marginal gains, with the drivers still complaining of drivability issues and inconsistency under braking, but Alonso expertly executed a one-stop strategy, which included a prolonged stint on the softest tires. That yielded ninth, his and Aston Martin’s best result of the campaign, to give the beleaguered team a boost heading into the second half of the season. Audi marches on Audi continued its upswing in performance by scoring points for the fourth successive grand prix. Nico Hulkenberg narrowly avoided wiping himself and teammate Gabriel Bortoleto out on the opening lap when the Brazilian spun through the final corner. But after that scare his path was smoothed by Arvid Lindblad being demoted by a penalty, while his move into eighth came when he pounced on Pierre Gasly being boxed in during a fierce midfield battle. “It was a very good race, although the end of the first lap was quite scary,” Hulkenberg said. “I saw what was happening ahead of me and just reacted instinctively, so I was relieved to avoid the incident. From there, we had a clean race, a good strategy and some fun battles along the way. It feels really good to come away with points today. They are important for us in the championship and give everyone in the team a lift, while also confirming that the work we are putting in is taking us in the right direction.” ‘Horrible’ race for double failure Haas Haas was braced for a challenging weekend in the Netherlands and that duly came to pass. Oliver Bearman qualified in 20th place and retired on the restart formation lap due to a suspected power unit issue, while Esteban Ocon was contending in the lower midfield group when his VF-26 also halted due to a power unit failure. It was Haas’ first double retirement of the campaign. “It’s been a really horrible weekend, not the one we wanted to come back to, but we have some updates coming next week, and I really hope they can better our performance,” Bearman said. Added Ocon: “We haven’t had any reliability issues this year, this is the first one, and we think it’s related to the PU, but we’ll need to look into it first to properly understand. Both cars had issues, so neither of us finished the race, but it wasn’t going to change the world as we weren’t in point scoring positions anyway. The updates are coming, they’re needed, so we’ll see what the impact is.” Palmowski takes big step to F1 Academy title Alisha Palmowski took a stride towards this year’s F1 Academy title with an emphatic victory in Zandvoort’s main race. The Red Bull-supported driver led away from pole position in the main race and was untroubled up front as she serenely collected her fourth victory of the campaign. Palmowski was followed home by Ferrari’s Alba Larsen, with Alpine’s Nina Gademan in third. Palmowski has now extended her lead in the championship over Emma Felbermayr, who was fifth, to 48 points. There are two round remaining, in the United States, at Austin and Las Vegas respectively. American Payton Westcott, who is supported by Mercedes, claimed her maiden victory in Saturday’s reverse-grid race, at the age of only 17. “I feel so relieved to have won a race in F1 Academy,” said Westcott, who is fifth in the championship. “It takes a big weight off my shoulders. I really did it to prove to myself that I could do it and I’m so happy.” A farewell to Zandvoort This year’s Dutch Grand Prix was the last at Zandvoort as organizers made the decision a while back to try and quit while they were ahead, rather than risk a downward spiral and financial constraints—given it is a rarity on the calendar of being a privately funded event. A record crowd of 325,000 spectators trickled across the Dutch dunes through the weekend, and there were mixed sentiments. Overcrowding in some areas—including on the railways used to shuttle spectators back and forth to Amsterdam—led to the unsettling sight of spectators risking crushes, given that while other events have higher crowds, Zandvoort has a small surface area and relatively narrow walkways between some areas. There was also disappointment at Max Verstappen’s early exit, though very few headed for the exits, instead staying to soak up the atmosphere long after the checkered flag. In truth, Zandvoort’s return was a success, providing useful tips and blueprints for other race promoters, while the grand prix itself proffered more thrills and spills than some on the calendar. The Sprint Race conversely was a tediously dull encounter, once more highlighting the limitations of the short race format, as strategies and tactics need time to develop over a grand prix duration. So for now it’s farewell to the sea of orange, relentless Max Verstappen chants, and an endless supply of Stroopwafels. FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN DUTCH GRAND PRIX 2026—RACE RESULTS Circuit Zandvoort—Zandvoort, Netherlands, August 23, 2026 Pos/Driver/Team/Time(Retired)/Pts 1. Lando Norris, McLaren, 2:04:44.859, 25 2. Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, +11.536s, 18 3. George Russell, Mercedes, +15.906s, 15 4. Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, +16.755s, 12 5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, +17.258s, 10 6. Oscar Piastri, McLaren, +32.332s, 8 7. Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing, +79.915s, 6 8. Nico Hulkenberg, Audi, +1 lap, 4 9. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, +1 lap, 2 10. Pierre Gasly, Alpine, +1 lap, 1 11. Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls, +1 lap, 0 12. Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls, +1 lap, 0 13. Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi, +1 lap, 0 14. Franco Colapinto, Alpine, +2 laps, 0 15. Sergio Perez, Cadillac, +2 laps, 0 16. Carlos Sainz, Williams, +2 laps, 0 17. Alexander Albon, Williams, DNF, 0 NC, Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac, DNF, 0 NC, Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team, DNF, 0 NC, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, DNF, 0 NC, Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team, DNF, 0 NC, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, DNF, 0 Fastest Lap: Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) — 1:14.230. Race Notes: Provisional results. Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson received 10-second penalties for failing to slow for yellow flags. Carlos Sainz received a 10-second penalty for causing a collision. 2026 FORMULA 1 DRIVER STANDINGS After the Dutch Grand Prix Pos/Driver/Team/Pts 1. Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, 242 2. George Russell, Mercedes, 183 3. Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, 183 4. Lando Norris, McLaren, 159 5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 155 6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 112 7. Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 104 8. Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing, 68 9. Liam Lawson, Red Bull Racing, 49 10. Pierre Gasly, Alpine, 44 11. Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls, 23 12. Franco Colapinto, Alpine, 19 13. Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team, 18 14. Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi, 10 15. Nico Hulkenberg, Audi, 6 16. Carlos Sainz, Williams, 6 17. Alexander Albon, Williams, 5 18. Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team, 3 19. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, 3 20. Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls, 0 21. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, 0 22. Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac, 0 23. Sergio Perez, Cadillac, 0 Source: Official Formula 1 2026 Drivers’ Standings 2026 FORMULA 1 CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS After the Dutch Grand Prix Pos/Team/Points 1. Mercedes, 425 2. Ferrari, 338 3. McLaren, 263 4. Red Bull Racing, 186 5. Racing Bulls, 66 6. Alpine, 63 7. Haas F1 Team, 21 8. Audi, 16 9. Williams, 11 10. Aston Martin, 3 11. Cadillac, 0 Source: Official Formula 1 2026 Teams’ Standings. U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.