DUTCH GP – Lando Norris dominates qualifying beating Max Verstappen by three and a half seconds to pole
Lando Norris has beaten Max Verstappen by three and a half seconds to take McLaren’s first pole at Zandvoort in forty years. Norris set 09.673 to beat his championship rival on his final attempt but then Verstappen was unable to respond having set his final attempt before Norris while the Englishman’s teammate Oscar Piastri couldn’t match his teammate going third.
Norris will look to deny Verstappen a fourth home win in a row, no driver has managed to win a returning or new race four times in a row this century. He is the first driver to beat the three-time champion at Zandvoort since the race returned in 2021. He looked to be the favourite after the wind picked up in Q2, after which there looked to be no stopping the McLaren.
Prove that McLaren is still challenging Red Bull, and they will have the advantage going into the race with both cars at the front because Zandvoort is a circuit which is more difficult to overtake on. The team has certainly looked on the same level as Red Bull in recent races. However Piastri lost time on his final attempt losing nearly half a second to Norris on his last attempt.
The result boosts Norris’ hopes of chasing down world championship leader Verstappen, who he trails by seventy-eight points at the top of the drivers’ standings. Mixed conditions played once again into his hands, as well as the upgrades the team has brought this weekend.
Norris said, “An amazing day. Nice to be back and start with a pole. It was a nice lap. Qualifying was always pretty smooth and we did some good laps, especially the one at the end. Great job by the team and I’m happy. I felt comfortable out there. The car felt amazing. We had some upgrades and everything is working very well.”
Verstappen added, “We will give it a good go but when you are more than three-tenths behind in qualifying, I think you have to be realistic. I will just try to have a good race.”
Oscar Piastri, who will start third on the grid: “I just didn’t do a good enough job. I think the first half of the lap was pretty solid then the second half wasn’t quite what I needed. The car has been very quick this weekend. A little bit disappointing to not be a bit higher up but we’ve still got a good race car”
George Russell put his Mercedes fourth, he was seven hundredths behind Piastri but he never looked to be a serious challenger for pole. But in the warmer and stable conditions, Mercedes were struggling the most with building tyre temperature following a wet FP3 session and further rain overnight.
The team had gone into qualifying expecting a close fight for the pole but as Red Bull and McLaren turned it to the max in Q3 he was left over half a second off Norris’ pole time as he went over a quarter of a second faster than Sergio Perez.
Perez was a tenth and a half behind Russell and nearly four-tenths behind Verstappen, though Red Bull committed to the Mexican until the end of the season their remains questions about his longer-term future should he not match his Dutch teammate during the second half of the season. He was nearly two-tenths faster than Charles Leclerc, but Lewis Hamilton is under investigation for impeding Perez in Q1.
Perez had to do an extra run during the first part of qualifying when he came across the slow-moving Hamilton, however the replays suggest this isn’t clear cut as the Mercedes looked like he had nowhere to go through the section of track. Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin seventh he was half a tenth behind Leclerc as he went two hundredths ahead of Alex Albon.
Albon managed to split the Astons as he went just over three-tenths faster than Lance Stroll, with Pierre Gasly completing the top ten. Carlos Sainz was eleventh, the Spaniard had got himself out of the Q1 drop zone by going fastest however was unable to repeat that in Q2, as others improved as the flag dropped.
Sainz wasn’t the only surprise casualty, Hamilton was also knocked out as he went three hundredths behind the driver he will replace at Ferrari next year. But Sainz has been on the back foot all weekend first the poor weather in FP1, followed by a gearbox issue forcing him out of FP2.
Nico Hulkenberg was fourteenth going eight hundredths faster than Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen, as they were the slowest in Q2. as Perez escaped the drop zone when being forced into an extra lap at the end of Q1 which knocked out the sister RB of Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo was half a tenth faster than Esteban Ocon, who described the car as a “disaster.”
The two Sauber’s completed the field with Valtteri Bottas going nearly a tenth ahead of teammate Guanyu Zhou, while Logan Sargeant’s heavy crash in FP3 left him unable to take part in qualifying.