Lando Norris heartbreak as Dutch GP DNF gifts Oscar Piastri huge F1 title advantage

Lando Norris held his head in his hands as he collapsed onto a sand dune at the side of the Zandvoort track. Moments earlier, the engine of his McLaren had blown up right as he was chasing down team-mate and Formula 1 title rival Oscar Piastri.

And with it might have gone his title ambitions. That is a bold statement with nine rounds to go, but this championship duel has been tight all year and this DNF for Norris has allowed Piastri to open up the most significant gap that either of them have held all year.

Norris' DNF also allowed Max Verstappen to take second place at his home race, to the delight of the locals. While Isack Hadjar was also a very popular visitor to the podium for the first time in his brief F1 career to far, having converted his impressive fourth place in qualifying in superb fashion.

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In contrast, it was a miserable day for the other top teams. George Russell was fourth, but Kimi Antonelli picked up 15 seconds' worth of penalties as he threw away another chance to score points. And Ferrari also didn't have anything to show for their efforts as Lewis Hamilton crashed out all on his own, before Charles Leclerc was taken out by the Mercedes teenager.

At the start, Norris had eyes for Piastri ahead of him but Verstappen behind was always going to be a threat. He had strapped on the soft tyres and used them to full effect with a dramatic duel with the Brit through the first two corners which very nearly saw the home hero lose control.

Verstappen swept around the outside of Norris at the first corner but, as he also tried to get by Piastri, ran wide and lost ground to the second McLaren. But he would not give up and went round the outside at turn two before hitting the sand on the dirty side of the track.

He suffered a massive swapper of oversteer but, somehow, managed to wrestle control back and keep the car low on the banked third corner, allowing him to make the overtake on Norris stick. And he quickly pushed out of DRS range, making the most of his softer rubber.

But as the first spots of rain began to fall on lap seven, there came the first signs that his tyres were beginning to give up. Norris was back within a second and hunting the Red Bull down, while Piastri was building a buffer for himself out front and was more than four seconds clear, making it more urgent for his team-mate to dispatch Verstappen.

And he wasted no time at all. At turn one on lap nine, he was forced around the outside but made it look easy as he made the most of the superior grip he had from the more durable mediums to sweep around and quickly zoom out of DRS range.

By lap 20, the rain had intensified to the point that many in the grandstands had begin to don ponchos to stay dry, but not enough to force anyone to abandon their slick tyres. Verstappen, still on those softs on which he started the race, had slipped to 13 seconds behind Norris who was being held at three-and-a-half seconds by his team-mate Piastri ahead.

Behind them, Hadjar was still in fourth place having shown strong pace to keep the Ferrari of Leclerc at arm's length. On lap 23, Ferrari realised they would not be able to get past the Racing Bulls car as Hamilton, in seventh behind Russell, had reported over the radio that an undercut was going to be the only way he would get past.

But then he touched the wet advertising patch on the outside of the banked third corner and that was it for Hamilton. He buried the right side of his Ferrari into the barrier and a rare crash meant he would leave the Netherlands with zero points to show for his efforts.

And Ferrari's misery was compounded when, later on, Leclerc was punted off by Antonelli. The Monegasque also faces the double jeopardy of potentially taking a penalty into next week's Italian Grand Prix at Monza as he will be investigated for the manner in which he overtook Russell earlier in the Grand Prix.

But the most dramatic incident of all came with less than 10 laps to go. Norris had narrowed the gap to Piastri and looked poised to make a move when he reported a funny smell from the cockpit of his car. Moments later, smoke could be seen pouring out of the McLaren and the writing was on the wall.

"Oil leak. I'm out. Failure," he reported over the radio, before swearing in exasperation. He knew just how costly this may turn out to be in what has been a tense and tight title battle so far. Piastri would score maximum points at Zandvoort, while Norris went home with nothing.