POWER RANKINGS: Who impressed our judges at the Dutch Grand Prix?

F1 returned from the summer break with a dramatic Dutch Grand Prix – won by McLaren’s Lando Norris in fine style. But who else impressed our Power Rankings judges at Zandvoort? Check out the latest scores and overall leaderboard below...

How it works

• Our five-judge panel assess each driver after every Grand Prix and score them out of 10 according to their performance across the weekend – taking machinery out of the equation
• Our experts’ scores are then averaged out to produce a race score – with those scores then tallied up across the season on our overall Power Rankings Leaderboard (at the bottom of the page)

As touched on above, Norris was on excellent form in the Netherlands. After starting second and finishing third in the Sprint, the reigning World Champion delivered a stunning lap for pole in Qualifying, which he ultimately converted into victory in an incident-packed, strategic Grand Prix – adding to his pre-break triumph in Hungary. That led to plenty of praise from McLaren team boss Andrea Stella, as well as high scores from our Power Rankings judges.

Zandvoort saw the arrival of more car updates for Aston Martin and a new power unit for Honda, and while there were driveability issues with the latter, Fernando Alonso appeared to get everything out of the package. After missing Q2 by a tenth, the Spaniard impressively worked his way up the order – aided by some smart strategy calls – to cross the line in ninth position, earning two valuable points in what was one of the drives of the day.

Kimi Antonelli experienced a tricky start to the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, with a mistake in Sprint Qualifying damaging his car and leaving him fifth on the grid, which he turned into fourth in the Sprint itself. He displayed more of his underlying pace to take third in Qualifying, just behind Mercedes team mate George Russell, before coming out on top in the intra-team battle on race day – extending his lead in the championship as a result.

Lewis Hamilton had a quiet Sprint Qualifying and Sprint at Zandvoort, placing seventh in both – well behind fellow Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. But he was the stronger of the pair during Qualifying and the Grand Prix, having started in fifth and worked his way into podium contention. There was frustration over strategy decisions, and spending several laps stuck behind Leclerc, but P4 still represented a solid turnaround.

Nico Hulkenberg spent most of the first half to the 2026 season ruing misfortune and pondering what might have been, until the Audi man finally got his points breakthrough in Hungary. While his Sprint at Zandvoort was derailed by a power issue, the German made it two Grand Prix top-10 finishes in a row with a strong drive to P8 – after his super-fast reactions helped him avoid spinning team mate Gabriel Bortoleto on the first lap.

In another career twist, Liam Lawson was given the nod by Red Bull chiefs to replace the injured Isack Hadjar at the Dutch Grand Prix – the scene of his F1 debut three years ago when Daniel Ricciardo also damaged his wrist. He understandably left a little bit on the table across Sprint Qualifying and the Sprint, but made up for it in Qualifying and the Grand Prix with runs to P8 (right on the tail of four-time World Champion Max Verstappen) and P7 respectively.

Yuki Tsunoda was part of the knock-on effect from Hadjar’s injury, with the Japanese racer – who has been spending 2026 as Red Bull’s reserve – returning to F1 action at Racing Bulls. Considering he had not raced in half a year, and also had to get to grips with the sport’s new generation of car, Tsunoda adapted admirably – and came close to taking a point out of his super-sub weekend.

Russell’s weekend could not have started better with pole in Sprint Qualifying and victory in the Sprint – provisionally taking a few points out of team mate Antonelli’s championship lead. He could not quite convert that over the Qualifying session and Grand Prix that followed, though, with Norris and Antonelli beating him to the chequered flag on Sunday. Russell still described it as “my best weekend for quite a while”, with some positives to take to Monza.

Pierre Gasly was one of the stars of the Sprint in his upgraded Alpine – securing eighth on the grid and eighth in the race. He looked set to add a handful more points to his and the squad’s tally on Grand Prix day, only to drop back in the middle phase and settle for 10th. The weekend nonetheless marked “a positive step” as Alpine set their sights on catching Racing Bulls for P5 in the Teams’ Championship.

As covered earlier on, Leclerc led the Ferrari charge through Sprint Qualifying and the Sprint, but a more challenging Qualifying session left him on the back foot for race day, where nothing seemed to go his way. “We just lacked a little bit of luck,” he said afterwards, pointing to the Virtual Safety Car, before arguing that “we are losing today’s race because of Qualifying”.

Missing out

Just missing out on a top-10 place in our latest Power Rankings list is Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad, who reached SQ3 and Q3 across the weekend, but could not quite come away with a points finish.