Ferrari’s Sunday unraveled fast at Zandvoort. Lewis Hamilton clipped the wall at the infamous Turn 3 banking on lap 23, and before the team had finished packing away his broken front wing, Charles Leclerc’s race was ended by Kimi Antonelli with 20 laps to go. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri walked away with the win; Ferrari left the Dutch dunes with a double DNF and more questions than answers.
Hamilton’s exit was the shock. The seven-time champion had been tidy all season for his new team, and Zandvoort looked like a chance to bank solid points. Instead, the Ferrari snapped on the way up the camber at Turn 3 — that uphill, off‑camber curve that rewards commitment right until it doesn’t — and the car speared into the barrier. No traffic, no late lunge, just a rare unforced error.
“I lost the rear on the banking and that was that,” Hamilton said afterwards, calm but clearly stung. He talked about how infrequently he’s made this kind of mistake across a long career — the sort you can “count on one hand” — and how the pace felt good enough to make proper progress before it all vanished in one slide. He wasn’t bruised, but the pride took a hit. The timing didn’t help either; Ferrari had been building a neat, tidy weekend. The kind Hamilton tends to turn into 10 or 12 points without drama.
If Hamilton’s prang signaled a bad day, Leclerc’s exit confirmed it. The Monegasque had been scrapping hard inside the top 10 when Antonelli misjudged it on lap 53, tagged Leclerc’s left-rear and spun him out of the race. Leclerc didn’t sugarcoat it. Aggression, he said, is a must at Zandvoort — it’s a narrow, old-school circuit where overtakes require bravery and a bit of needle. But there’s a limit, and this one, in his view, tipped over it. He stopped short of branding it a “rookie mistake,” but the subtext was obvious: Antonelli’s a quick study, just not quick enough to avoid this one.
For Antonelli, still in his first season at the very top, it will be a tough lesson at a circuit that punishes misjudgment. Zandvoort’s rollercoaster layout tempts drivers into those marginal sends, especially as strategies diverge late on and tire deltas invite optimism. A few centimeters either way, and we’re talking about a highlight reel pass. This time, it ended in Ferrari carbon everywhere.
Piastri’s win put a clean shine on McLaren’s side of the story, though even they didn’t escape the chaos with both cars: Lando Norris retired from contention after his own troubles. But on a day where Red Bull and others flattered to deceive, Piastri was all composure, and McLaren’s pit wall again made the kind of crisp calls that turn control into trophies.
Back at Ferrari, the post-mortem won’t dwell on one single thing. Hamilton’s crash was an outlier — a champion caught out at a corner designed to do exactly that — but the bigger theme is opportunity squandered. Zandvoort is a track where Ferrari’s balance typically counts for a lot in the medium-speed stuff, and this weekend had the feel of quiet momentum before the floor fell away. The double DNF hurts on the scoreboard and inside the garage.
There’s a broader subplot here too. Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari this year reset some rhythms that had seemed unshakeable at Mercedes. The pace has been there in phases, and the execution has been cleaner than the gossip might suggest. But as the title fight finds its shape, days like this make the gap feel wider than it really is. The good news, if you’re wearing red, is that this wasn’t about fundamental pace. The bad news is you still leave with zero.
Leclerc’s stance on the Antonelli clash — tough but fair — will split opinions in the paddock, but it reads true to the place. Zandvoort asks for forceful racing and a cool head; get one wrong and you’ll be arguing about it on Sunday night. For Antonelli, the ceiling remains sky-high. For Leclerc, it’s another reminder that Ferrari’s season is walking that tightrope between promise and frustration.
Hamilton, meanwhile, will be itching for a reset. He talked about progress in his approach and felt he had the speed to go forward in the race. The margin at Turn 3 said otherwise. Champions tend to file these moments in the “don’t do that again” drawer and move on. The calendar gives him that chance immediately, and Ferrari will welcome the chance to write a different story.
So Zandvoort delivered its usual blend: a jewel box of a circuit, a peaky tire window, one punishing mistake, one contentious overtake, and a winner who barely put a foot wrong. Piastri and McLaren did the clean work. Ferrari did the heavy lifting back to the truck. On to the next one.
