F1 returned to our screens after the summer break and it was a return to winning ways for Oscar Piastri and McLaren in Zandvoort.

The championship leader cruised to the win, but had his first career grand slam overshadowed by a dramatic late-race retirement from his teammate Lando Norris, who saw his race and potentially also his championship hopes go up in a puff of smoke just a few laps from the chequered flag.

The retirement leaves the Brit chasing a 34 point gap with just nine rounds left to go this season, with a grid drop for a new engine in one of these now also now looming too. Norris was understandably devastated, but says he will “take the positives” as he tries to bounce back in Monza this weekend.

One team who have few positives heading to Italy is Ferrari. It was a truly dismal weekend for the Scuderia, after a Friday spent “miles off it” according to Charles Leclerc, he and Hamilton managed to salvage a decent qualifying only to have both cars in the barriers at turn three on Sunday.

Hamilton found the walls on his own, as he got onto the slippery paint on the upper part of the banking, losing the rear and snapping into the barrier. This brought out the safety car to the detriment of his teammate who had just pitted.

Leclerc would then pull off a magnificent move on George Russell to take the place back before his race would also end prematurely at the hands of the other Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli. The rookie dived to the lower part of turn three after both he and Leclerc had stopped again for softs, understeering into the rear of the scarlet car and taking the Monegasque driver out of contention.

The other huge story of the weekend was that of Isack Hadjar. The rookie inherited a maiden podium finish following Norris’ DNF, but had already put in a driver of the day performance, after qualifying P4 and staying there in the race on pure pace. He becomes the youngest Frenchman to step on the podium and the first driver ever of Arab descent to do so.

Now attention shifts to Monza, where the expectant Tifosi will want a repeat of Leclerc’s race winning heroics from last season. It will most likely need to come from Leclerc too, as Hamilton carries a 5-place grid drop into this race after speeding under double yellows before the race start in the Netherlands.

He along with Norris may take a new engine at a track where power is the order of the day and overtaking should in theory be easier than the twists of Zandvoort.