A frenetic last-ever Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix produced plenty of winners and losers.

Here are our team's picks...

Winner: Lando Norris (1st)

Much faster than anyone else out there, Norris has breathed some against-the-odds life into a title bid that...still doesn't make much mathematical sense just yet.

He properly ran up the score on team-mate Oscar Piastri in the process (32-second gap at the finish), and outfoxed Kimi Antonelli beautifully when the latter attempted an ill-advised half-move on Lewis Hamilton. 

That overtake was surely coming one way or another anyway, but it's always nice to seal a win with aplomb. And whether the points gap is too big already or not, Norris is now again comprehensively spearheading a team that is proving it's carried over its developmental acumen into the new regulations set and can dominate races on merit. - Valentin Khorounzhiy

Loser: Max Verstappen (DNF) 

There is a cruel irony in Verstappen being caught out by the damp Zandvoort circuit on Sunday, after suggesting on Saturday that Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda’s impressive stand-in performances showed the limit is too easy to find in these cars. 

Of course Verstappen wasn’t saying ‘the limit in these cars in the damp around Zandvoort’s banked final corners is easy to find’, but Verstappen smashing his Red Bull into the wall was good evidence of how tricky F1 can still be, even for its benchmark driver. - Josh Suttill 

Winner: Nico Hulkenberg (8th) 

A sterling drive from Hulkenberg that began with a last-second dodge through the smoke of spinning team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto.

Bortoleto’s race was almost disastrous as he crawled off the line and lost places before spinning at the same corner that claimed the car of Verstappen - and while he recovered to a decent finish, he ought to have scored points.

It was that battle against Racing Bulls’s Arvid Lindblad and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly - both of whom were also converging on Williams’s Carlos Sainz - that set the race alight on lap 27. 

Ultimately, Hulkenberg was in a class of his own against the Racing Bulls, and the Audi driver put on a remarkable performance on Sunday - for his second-straight points-scoring weekend of 2026. - Samarth Kanal

Loser - Oscar Piastri (6th)

Piastri’s race unravelled early on as he started on the hard tyre, lost out to Charles Leclerc at the start, and was then pitted swiftly to cover off a George Russell undercut.

The Australian also endured a slow first stop before emerging on another set of hard compounds. 

Piastri was unable to contend with the Ferraris for P5 or better and, after picking up just 12 points over the last two weekends, has been left searching for answers.

“I think these two tracks suit the car well, it's just that, for whatever reason, I've not been able to get the pace out of it,” he said. - SK

Winner: Fernando Alonso (9th) 

Speaking about his future on Thursday at Zandvoort, Alonso said he’ll be “sitting with Lawrence [Stroll] and Adrian [Newey, and] if the need for the team is for me to drive, I will consider”. 

On the evidence of his Sunday drive at Zandvoort, Newey and Stroll should be doing everything they can to convince Alonso to keep driving next year. 

Alonso made a bold one-stop strategy work to finish second in F1’s midfield, keeping Gasly in the upgraded Alpine at bay, and beating the Racing Bulls that have led the midfield fight so far. 

He did all of that in an Aston Martin that is clearly still significantly down on power despite the introduction of Honda’s spec 2 engine. 

It’s exactly the kind of dogged midfield drive Alonso’s long become a master of - the question is whether the prospect of delivering more of these drives is enough for him to continue for another year. - JS

Loser: Carlos Sainz (16th)

Sainz's season has been good on an individual level - I am not really interested in dissenting opinions on this - but he has managed to bookend the summer break with a pair of moments of particularly naff 'season lowlight' driving.

He held up his hands as being at fault in the collision, explaining that he'd been surprised how hard he hit the bump on the inside of Turn 1 - which triggered a lock-up and led to the collision with team-mate Alex Albon.

Albon retired from the race afterwards with floor damage, but was much less cross about the incident than about the fact Williams hadn't aped Alonso's one-stop strategy (which he felt could've been a point(s?)-scorer for Williams, too).

But when you're racing for nothing, the last thing you want to do is tack on an extra repair bill. - VK

Loser: Racing Bulls (11th and 12th)

Tsunoda's fairly smooth adaptation meant Racing Bulls looked well-positioned to weather the minor storm of Lawson's Red Bull call-up and keep up its scoring run as the midfield leader.

But Lindblad's drive-through penalty - which he disputes as "a bit harsh, we can all be honest, quite extreme for such an incident" - immediately removed his scoring prospects and forced him to effectively race Tsunoda's race instead.

He did the job fantastically as a used-tyre pest bothering Gasly in particular (allowing Hulkenberg and Tsunoda to jump Gasly) but a subsequent late-race defence against Gasly was understandably too much of an ask for the stand-in.

Ultimately, there wasn't enough attrition at all here to make any significant dent in Racing Bulls' championship outlook - but it would have scored with anywhere near an optimal run. - VK

Winner: Dutch GP farewell 

After a static sprint race, this was one hell of a final Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, with different strategies at play and great racing up and down the field.  

It’s not an argument that F1 should suddenly ensure Zandvoort remains on the calendar. There are genuine financial reasons why it can’t continue. 

But a great final race only adds to the reasons why it’s such a shame we’re losing such a well-attended, atmospheric race with a circuit layout with some unique geometry. - JS

Loser: Franco Colapinto (14th)

Colapinto’s Sunday was curtailed by a drive-through penalty for overtaking Tsunoda under yellow flags on the opening lap.

The Argentinean driver called it a “very harsh” penalty after a quick start, and the onboards seemed to back up his case that it would’ve been “far more dangerous to slam on the brakes”.

From then, Colapinto finished two laps down in P14 for a second-straight weekend without points - before picking up another penalty for not respecting a yellow flag at Turn 3.

Some solace comes in the form of the Alpine upgrade package, which should be fitted to his car in Monza. - SK