George Russell edged out defending champion Lando Norris to take sprint pole at Zandvoort. This was the Mercedes driver’s second sprint P1 this season.
The Silver Arrows driver beat the Papaya by a tiny margin of only 0.041 seconds and it came particularly out of the blue after topping neither SQ1 or SQ2 – respectively done by Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri – but a time of one minute, 11.567 seconds in the final session.
It was a very tight SQ3 too, as third-placed Leclerc was just 0.055 seconds off the pace for Ferrari with Oscar Piastri in fourth and 0.099 seconds behind Russell.
A slightly bigger gap then emerged to Russell’s teammate Kimi Antonelli though, who was 0.227 seconds behind, with another three tenths precisely to Max Verstappen in sixth for Red Bull.
Lewis Hamilton struggled in the other Ferrari as the seven-time world champion was 0.624 seconds behind Russell in seventh, but five tenths above Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in eighth.
Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Racing Bulls Arvid Lindblad respectively rounded out the top ten at Zandvoort, both setting a lap that was 1.016 seconds and 1.170 seconds behind Russell ahead of the sprint race.
It was a respectable Red Bull return for Liam Lawson, who has replaced the injured Isack Hadjar, as he qualified P11 after being eliminated by his usual teammate Lindblad.
“I have no idea what happened,” reported Lawson, who was four tenths off SQ3, and will share the sixth row with his Racing Bulls stand-in and Formula 1 returnee Yuki Tsunoda.
Franco Colapinto will be on the seventh row in P13, shared with Nico Hulkenberg, while Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon respectively rounded out the SQ2 drop zone.
In SQ1 a late improvement from Oliver Bearman put him P17 and one position above Williams driver Carlos Sainz, who was pushed into the elimination zone by Bearman’s Haas teammate Ocon.
The last four positions were occupied by the usual suspects: Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in P19, the Cadillac duo of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez P20 and P21 with Fernando Alonso in P22.
Alonso particularly struggled as he locked up at Turn 1 and finished last despite a slipstream from a Cadillac and it was later confirmed that the straight line mode on his rear wing did not work.
Dutch Grand Prix, sprint qualifying results:
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:11.567
2 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:11.608
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:11.622
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1:11.666
5 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:11.794
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Ford 1:12.094
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:12.191
8 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Mercedes 1:12.578
9 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:12.583
10 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls-Ford 1:12.737
11 Liam Lawson Red Bull-Ford 1:13.136
12 Yuki Tsunoda Racing Bulls-Ford 1:13.145
13 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Mercedes 1:13.439
14 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:13.616
15 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari 1:13.893
16 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1:14.294
17 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari 1:14.728
18 Carlos Sainz Williams-Mercedes 1:14.738
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Honda 1:15.391
20 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari 1:15.472
21 Sergio Perez Cadillac-Ferrari 1:15.545
22 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Honda 1:16.014