Russell Claims His Third Sprint Win of the Season at Zandvoort

George Russell showed once again that nobody touches him in sprint format this year. He started from pole, controlled every lap, and walked away with what would be his third Sprint win of 2026, leaving Lando Norris fighting for something that never ended up being his.

The start set the tone. Russell got away clean and began stretching his lead almost immediately. Norris stayed close behind, with Leclerc and Antonelli breathing down his neck from lap one. Antonelli, for his part, treated himself to picking off Piastri at Turn 2 as soon as the lights went out. Pure appetite.

Norris loses his rear end

For the first ten laps, the race seemed to revolve around one question: can Norris do anything with Russell? At times, yes. He closed the gap under a second, had DRS available, even threatened to get into the real fight for the lead.

But something broke around there. “I have no rear,” he was heard saying over the radio, and that single line explains everything that followed. McLaren started struggling for rear grip right when it mattered most, and Leclerc, who had been cooking up his attack on softs from behind, smelled blood.

Was it natural tyre wear, or the price of fighting so close to Russell for so many laps? Palmer floated that idea on the broadcast, and honestly, it tracks. When you fight wheel to wheel for that long, something eventually gives.

Leclerc finds the gap

Norris’s resistance lasted until lap 18. Leclerc had been closing in for a while he got within four tenths without completing the move, with Norris defending every line with surgical precision. But on the main straight, Overtake Mode engaged, the Ferrari flew and dove past before Turn 1. That was the picture: Leclerc into P2, Norris left to defend what remained.

And right behind, Antonelli was already smelling the same blood.

The Piastri question

If there’s one question left hanging after this Sprint, it’s what happened to Piastri. The Australian had looked strong the day before, especially on mediums. But in the race he never showed up: at one point he was 4.5 seconds behind Antonelli, the biggest gap between any of the top four cars.

Was he managing the pace, knowing he had no real shot at Antonelli ahead? Or did the car simply not work today the way it did on Saturday? We still don’t know and honestly, that’s the most interesting part of the whole race. Lap numbers don’t always tell the full story.

Antonelli, close but not close enough

From lap 19 onward, the race turned into pure pursuit. Antonelli, now settled into fourth, began eating into Norris’s gap lap after lap. Nine tenths on lap 20. Seven on lap 21. Half a second by lap 22.

The problem was McLaren, even without grip, wasn’t handing the position over for free. Antonelli needed more than proximity he needed the gap, the right corner, the mistake that never quite came in the laps we saw.

Further up the road, Russell and Leclerc had already settled their own fight. No drama, no scares, the leader stretching a lead that by this point looked like a formality.

What was cooking further back

Not everything happened in the top five. Verstappen, racing at home with all the pressure that brings, lost ground to Piastri and ended up battling an old rival: Hamilton, half a second back, with no clear space to try anything. Hülkenberg, meanwhile, pulled into the pits with reliability trouble another difficult weekend for him.

Further down, Gasly held onto the final points position with Bortoleto right on his tail, until the Brazilian began to slip in the closing laps. Small battles that, while they don’t change the result up front, still decide who scores and who goes home empty-handed.

And the weather, as it so often does at Zandvoort, added its own layer of tension: dark clouds rolling in, Verstappen’s race engineer confirming rain wouldn’t arrive before the finish, and Albon getting the opposite warning for the final lap. All within the same Sprint. That’s how unpredictable this circuit can be.

Antonelli left wanting more

The last lap brought one final attempt, though it fell short. Antonelli knew this was his real chance and had a look into Turn 1, hunting for a gap on Norris to steal the podium. He never got close enough to commit, and that was that. Seven tenths on lap 23, a tentative look on lap 24. Norris, running without rear grip for half the race, held onto third more through character than pace.

Up front, no drama at all. Russell crossed the line 1.5 seconds clear of Leclerc, without a single mistake across 24 laps, sealing his third Sprint win of the year. Eight more points in a weekend that, so far, he’s been dominating from start to finish.

Final Sprint Results

Russell picks up his third Sprint win of the year, though one curious stat lingers: no Sprint winner in 2026 has gone on to win the Grand Prix in the same weekend. Does he break that streak on Sunday, or does Antonelli get the payback that slipped away from him on the final lap?

Note: Hülkenberg returned to track after his reliability stop but finishes 17 laps down, outside the points

Source Data Table: Formula1.com