Dutch Grand Prix Qualifying Report – By Joe Murphy
Lando Norris claimed a superb pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix as rain threatened in the closing stages of qualifying at Zandvoort. The McLaren driver delivered when it mattered, setting a time of 1:11.163 on his final flying lap to beat Mercedes’ George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
Norris edged Russell by just over a tenth of a second, while the Mercedes pair were separated by only three hundredths, with Antonelli taking third. Oscar Piastri lined up fourth for McLaren after looking the strongest runner for much of the session.
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc secured fifth and sixth for Ferrari, ahead of Max Verstappen in seventh. Liam Lawson impressed with eighth for Red Bull, finishing close to his team-mate, with Gabriel Bortoleto and Arvid Lindblad completing the top 10 for Audi and Racing Bulls respectively.
Pierre Gasly narrowly missed out on Q3 for Alpine, qualifying 11th ahead of returning Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda. Nico Hulkenberg took 13th for Audi, followed by Franco Colapinto, Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon.
Carlos Sainz was eliminated in Q1 by 0.022s to his team-mate and will start 17th, alongside the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, who continue to struggle with their upgraded power unit. Ollie Bearman qualified 20th for Haas, ahead of the Cadillac pair of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.
Speaking afterwards, Norris said: “It doesn’t get any better. I was a little surprised, to be honest, but it was a decent lap. I was pushing because you can see how close it is… every hundredth, two hundredths makes a big difference in the end. It’s a good turnaround from earlier today where we struggled a little. The team did a great job to extract a bit more from the car and it certainly helped me today.”
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