Dutch GP Sprint: George Russell wins from Charles Leclerc to trim F1 world championship deficit to Kimi Antonelli at Zandvoort

22.08.2026, 14:48 skysports.com

George Russell won the Dutch Grand Prix Sprint to maintain his perfect start to Formula 1's return to action and trim his championship deficit to Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

The polesitting Russell held the lead from Lando Norris at the start and and withstood an initial challenge from his fellow Briton before the McLaren fell into the clutches of Charles Leclerc's Ferrari behind.

Despite being on the more brittle soft tyres compared to the mediums of those around him, Leclerc overtook Norris for second with an impressive move into the first corner on lap 18 of the short-form contest.

But Norris was at least able to hold off Antonelli for third, the championship leader having taken fourth from the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri on the first lap.

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While Russell is now 56 points back on his team-mate after victory, Antonelli's overall championship lead has extended to 53 points after Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton finished where he qualified in seventh.

A downpour arrived just as Russell was taking the chequered flag for his third Sprint win of the season with the Mercedes driver admitting the final tour would have been "very sketchy" had the rain arrived any earlier.

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Fifth-placed Piastri finished with home favourite Max Verstappen right on his tail.

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Hamilton, though, was 1.6s back on Verstappen in seventh and will now hope for sufficiently better over the rest of race weekend after being unhappy with his set-up into Sprint Qualifying.

Pierre Gasly took the final point on offer in the Sprint with eighth for Alpine.

The Zandvoort weekend is now effectively reset with teams able to make changes to their cars ahead of Grand Prix Qualifying at 3pm later on Saturday, live on Sky Sports F1 and Main Event.

1) George Russell, Mercedes2) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari3) Lando Norris, McLaren4) Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes5) Oscar Piastri, McLaren6) Max Verstappen, Red Bull7) Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari8) Pierre Gasly, Alpine

Having seemingly got his inconsistent championship challenge against Antonelli back on track at the start of July when he reduced his title deficit to 25 points, Russell dropped 34 points further to his team-mate in the space of the final two race weeks before F1's summer break.

So a fast start to F1's return at Zandvoort was therefore imperative for the 28-year-old, which he has managed to deliver so far.

"A great start to the weekend," said Russell. "The Ferraris look really fast, so it's going to be a tight one this afternoon [in Qualifying].

"I knew if there were going to be any overtakes, they were going to be towards the end of the race. So, I knew I just wanted to manage my tyres a bit through the high-speed corners and have a bit more in the tank come the end of the race.

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"I knew if Charles got past Lando at all, he would be fast. As soon as I saw Charles behind, I dropped the hammer a little bit and the two of us pulled away."

Norris, the dominant race winner last time out in Hungary, had initially looked a threat to Russell himself but he was reeled in and eventually overtaken by Leclerc.

"Not a bad result, not the best. Would have been nice to have been a little bit faster today, but Charles was just too quick," he said.

"I don't think it was the tyres, just that we lacked pace. We're not quick enough and we have some work to do."

Leclerc said: "I knew Lando didn't have much deployment on the main straight so I knew I had to maximise that but we still arrived at the braking point more or less at the same level and it worked out."

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Saturday August 221.30pm: F1 Academy Race 12.15pm: Dutch GP Qualifying build-up*3pm: DUTCH GP QUALIFYING*5pm: Porsche Supercup Race 1

Sunday August 239.35am: F1 Academy Race 210.50am: Porsche Supercup Race 212.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Dutch GP build-up2pm: THE DUTCH GRAND PRIX4pm: Chequered Flag: Dutch GP reaction

*also on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 is at Zandvoort for a Sprint weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix with every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime