Championship leader Max Verstappen took pole position at his home race, Zandvoort, beating Charles Leclerc by a tiny margin of 0.021 seconds.
Verstappen ended up with pole after reversing Leclerc’s advantage from the opening Q1 runs, with the session interrupted by race fans throwing flares onto the track, causing Q2 to be red flagged.
Leclerc led Verstappen by 0.059 seconds after the first Q3 runs, with the 2022 frontrunners converging on pace after Red Bull’s tricky start to the weekend.
The Ferrari driver set the quickest times in the first and last sectors on his final lap, but being unable to replicate his best time in the middle part of the track cost him dear.
This was because Verstappen set a purple sector and ended up with a best time of one minute, 10.342 seconds, 0.021 seconds quicker than his rival.
Carlos Sainz slotted into third position just before Sergio Perez spun at the end of his final lap – Checo dipping his left-side wheels into the gravel at the exit of the penultimate corner and spearing around to the inside of the banked final turn.
That meant the following Mercedes drivers were obliged to lift off and so Lewis Hamilton ended up fourth with Perez fifth ahead of George Russell.
Lando Norris took seventh ahead of Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda, while Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished tenth after being unable to run in Q3 due a technical issue on his car.
Stroll’s mechanics were spotted inspecting the front damper area of his AMR2022 before Q3 began – the final segment featuring flare smoke blowing from the pit exit but covered by a brief yellow flag ahead of the final runs.
Q2 was suspended shortly after it had begun when another lit flare from the grandstands overlooking the exit of Turn 12 and the last part of the track’s stadium section was thrown on the track.
The FIA, which said the person who threw the flare “identified and removed by event security”, suspended the action until it went out and could be removed.
During the stoppage, the marshals at Turn 7 attempted to clear some pigeons that had settled on the inside of that corner, which Alex Albon had noted as he ran solo at the start of the middle segment before the flare had to be cleared.
The Q2 action resumed after a six-minute delay and when it ended Pierre Gasly ended up as the highest-placed runner eliminated in P11 – despite setting a personal best time on his final flier.
That meant Tsunoda survived to reach Q3, with Esteban Ocon likewise knocked out after producing his best time at the end of Q2.
Fernando Alonso trailed his Alpine teammate in P13, but put the blame for his early exit on encountering Perez going slowly on an in-lap through the Turn 9 double apex right-hander.
Zhou Guanyu finished P14 for Alfa Romeo, with Albon shuffled back from P10 to P15 after completing his final lap well ahead of the rest in the closing Q2 minutes.
In Q1, Gasly’s late improvement knocked out Valtteri Bottas in the other Alfa Romeo, with Kevin Magnussen, initially out in P17 but was soon dropped to P18 as his flirtation with track limits at the Hugenholtz on his final flier went too far and the FIA deleted his effort.
That meant Daniel Ricciardo finished P17 when teammate Norris had got through the opening segment in fifth, while Sebastian Vettel ended up back in P19 after making a major error on his last lap.
Just after he had set a then fastest time in the first sector and his quickest middle sector of Q1, Vettel could not hold an oversteer snap through the penultimate corner and so slid wide and into the gravel trap on the exit.
Nicholas Latifi finished last for Williams.
So after a tricky practice sessions on Friday in which Max Verstappen suffered a gearbox/driveshaft issue and lost valuable track time, the Red Bull driver bounced back in terms of pace to take pole position in qualifying. Can Max score a popular win in front of his home fans? The pressure is on at Zandvoort.
Dutch Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:10.342
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:10.363
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:10.434
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:10.648
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:11.077
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:11.147
7 Lando Norris McLaren 1:11.174
8 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:11.442
9 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:12.556
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Mercedes No time
11 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:11.512
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:11.605
13 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:11.613
14 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:11.704
15 Alex Albon Williams 1:11.802
16 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:11.961
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:12.041
18 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:12.081
19 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:12.391
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:13.353
Dutch Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Max Verstappen took pole position for the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc missing out by 0.021s in a thrilling Zandvoort contest.
Verstappen logged a lap of 1m 10.342s in Q3 just before team mate Sergio Perez, fifth, spun at Turn 13 to bring out a yellow flag and prevent anyone else from beating the Dutchman’s time. Leclerc ended up 0.021s off the home favourite in P2, while Q2 leader Carlos Sainz qualified P3 – under a tenth off pole.
Lewis Hamilton qualified on the second row in P4, the Mercedes driver unable to improve late in Q3, while team mate George Russell settled for sixth behind Perez.
Lando Norris qualified seventh, with Mick Schumacher a surprise eighth and Yuki Tsunoda an equally surprising ninth. Lance Stroll made it to Q3 but a technical issue saw him confined to the garage and settle for 10th on the grid for Aston Martin.
Pierre Gasly qualified 11th ahead of compatriot Esteban Ocon, while Fernando Alonso finished 13th in Q2 as neither Alpine made it to the top 10 shootout. Zhou Guanyu took P14, ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon.
Valtteri Bottas was knocked out in P16 as his Alfa Romeo team mate Zhou made it through to Q2. Haas’s Kevin Magnussen’s track limits infringement saw him finish 17th, ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel – who took P19 having run into the gravel on his final flying lap – and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi backing up the pack.
Q1 – Verstappen top as track evolution makes for a mixed-up order
Huge roars welcomed Max Verstappen when he emerged after five minutes, the Dutchman muscling his car around the circuit to set the top time of 1m 11.317s (despite losing time in the final corner), with Leclerc going second by 0.126s after two flying laps, followed by the Mercedes drivers of Russell and Hamilton in a provisional P3 and P4, respectively.
But there was more to come amid extremely high track evolution, the likes of Vettel, Ricciardo, Albon and Schumacher at risk of elimination, while Bottas was on the cusp in P15 as the field re-emerged.
Verstappen and Leclerc stayed in the garage, content with their times, and while the former retained P1 in Q1, Hamilton finished second and just 0.024s off in his Mercedes, Tsunoda taking P3 with the fastest second sector. That dropped Leclerc to fourth, ahead of McLaren’s Norris and Mercedes driver Russell in P6.
Stroll managed to take P7 ahead of Perez but Aston Martin team mate Vettel could only manage P19 having picked up damage in the gravel outside Turn 13. Alonso made it to Q2 in P9, Albon rounding out the top 10 for Williams while his team mate Latifi rounded out the standings in 20th.
Gasly, Schumacher and Ocon made it through and Sainz might have felt a bit nervous, placing 14th in Q1. Alfa Romeo’s Zhou also made it through in P15, knocking out team mate Bottas by over a tenth of a second.
Magnussen was eliminated in P17 having transgressed track limits at Turn 3, while Ricciardo placed 18th, later saying that dirt thrown up by another car cost him time, the Australian finishing ahead of Vettel and Latifi.
Knocked out: Bottas, Magnussen, Ricciardo, Vettel, Latifi
Q2 – Sainz takes P1 as seven different teams make it to Q3
Q2 was red-flagged almost as soon as the green light appeared as a flare had been thrown onto the track – ruining Albon’s out-lap – with the offender removed from the circuit. After the circa-five-minute stoppage, Verstappen and Albon emerged to resume the action, the former on used softs and the latter on new softs. The Red Bull driver crossed the line with a time of 1m 10.927s to set the top time.
With a tow, Hamilton shot to P2 ahead of Perez, while Stroll starred early in Q2, 0.489s off Verstappen in P4 to leave Russell rounding out the top five with time ticking down. Both AlphaTauris, Ocon, Zhou, and Schumacher were under threat of elimination, Albon on the bubble in P10.
As the chequered flag approached, laps came in and Sainz took top spot with a time of 1m 10.814s, Russell just 0.010s off in P2, to drop Verstappen – who again attemped just one flying lap – to P3.
Leclerc was fourth ahead of Hamilton in P5, with Norris sixth and Perez – who aborted his final effort – in seventh. Stroll and a delighted Schumacher were next on the board as Tsunoda made it through in P10, eliminating Gasly by under a tenth of a second.
Ocon was eliminated in P12 ahead of Alonso, who blamed Perez for impeding him in Turns 8 and 9 and was eliminated in P13. Zhou took P14 and Albon, who did not emerge for a final flying lap, 15th in Q2 – where just six-tenths split P1 and P10…
Knocked out: Gasly, Ocon, Alonso, Zhou, Albon
Q3 – Verstappen takes pole ahead of Leclerc before Perez spins
Again it was Verstappen who emerged first on new softs having crucially saved three sets of new soft tyres, followed by Perez on used tyres – a number of other drivers running low on brand-new sets of Pirelli’s coveted softs. The Dutchman set a lap of 1m 10.515s and had plenty of time, and tyres, to improve on that…
Leclerc then beat that with a time of 1m 10.456s, Hamilton going third behind Verstappen and 0.192s off the pace. Sainz couldn’t match them, taking fourth by a margin of 0.291s with Perez 0.621s off top spot in P5. With three minutes left, Stroll sat in P10 without a time to his name – a strong qualifying session cut short by a technical issue.
The cars poured out of the pits, Leclerc with the time to beat. The Monegasque was first to cross the line, but he lost time in Sector 2, though he improved with a brilliant final sector to finish with a lap of 1m 10.363s. Then came Verstappen, a fastest Sector 2 putting him top with a 1m 10.342s.
Sainz could only go third, missing out by just under two tenths of a second. The Mercedes and Perez were yet to cross the line but at Turn 13, the Red Bull driver spun 180 degrees and brought out a yellow flag in Sector 3 that guaranteed him fifth on the grid but stopped fourth-place Hamilton and sixth-place Russell from improving.
Norris qualified eighth to share row four with Haas’s Schumacher, while Tsunoda ended up ninth ahead of Stroll, who was confined to the garage for Q3.
Crucially, Verstappen took his fourth pole of the season, and has a set of brand-new softs reserved for race day.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen condemns “silly, stupid” use of flares by Formula 1 fans. Motorsport.com has the news story.
Max Verstappen has condemned the “silly” and “stupid” flare throwing during Dutch Grand Prix qualifying, while other Formula 1 drivers said even ones just kept in grandstands pose a danger.
The second part of 2022 qualifying at Zandvoort was halted after a lit flare was thrown from the grandstand overlooking the exit of Turn 12 and the final part of the track’s stadium-like section, while a second flare was dropped near the pit exit in Q3.
It is understood that the second flare did not reach the track, but its orange smoke could be seen billowing through the barriers ahead of the final qualifying runs, where Verstappen edged title rival Charles Leclerc to claim pole.
When asked by Motorsport.com for his reaction to the incidents and if there was anything he could say to dissuade any fans tempted to repeat such dangerous actions during Sunday’s grand prix as the reigning world champion and home hero, Verstappen replied: “It’s just very silly to do.
“To hold flares, it’s nice but of course there is a limit to how much. But to throw it on the track is just stupid. And I think also the person who did that got removed.
“Just don’t do that. It’s not good for anyone – you get thrown out so you can’t see the race and for us the session is stopped because it’s dangerous when there is stuff on the track. [You] shouldn’t do it.”
Speaking alongside Verstappen in the post-qualifying press conference, Leclerc also stressed to fans “don’t do this type of thing” and hoped “in the future we can do [something] to avoid that”.
Carlos Sainz, third behind Verstappen and Leclerc, urged Dutch GP organisers to “let the fans know when it’s possible to use the flares and when it’s not”, although there is already a ban in place and the fans that lit and threw flares on Saturday did so in breach of the order.
“I think it was good that in the in-lap for Max to [getting] pole they used them, but [do] not use them in the middle of the race or in lap one when we are in the middle of fights,” Sainz continued.
“At 300km/h with these cars you don’t want any kind of distraction from smoke.
“Hopefully the organisation can do a good job in warning when it’s the time to use them and when it’s not. And, of course, even more important when not to throw it into the track.”
Verstappen-supporting fans have been most notable for letting off large numbers of orange smoke flares at his Red Bull team’s home race in Austria in recent years, as well as at Zandvoort when the track final rejoined the F1 calendar in 2021.
But there have been other instances of flares being lit in support of other drivers and teams – including at the Italian and Mexican races last year.
Perhaps the most famous example of flares being lit en masse occurred after Verstappen crossed the line to win the 2021 Dutch GP and smoke billowed across the track while rivals in his wake were still racing.
One of those was Williams driver Nicholas Latifi, who, after qualifying last for the 2022 Dutch race, recalled how he “couldn’t see anything in the chicane at the end” last year.
“If there is still a race going on behind then it can be quite dangerous,” he added. “Maybe needs to be some stricter security checks…well maybe not stricter security checks because you can’t screen 100,000 people properly, but stricter consequences if someone’s seen doing that.”
Latifi also highlighted how flares being let off during last weekend’s Belgian GP left him “actually confused whether there was a car off ahead of you or whether it was just an orange flare” – a concern that was raised in the Zandvoort drivers’ briefing.
“Most of the time I find it is a very distinct orange or you know ‘OK, that’s a flare that’s not gravel’ [from someone going off ahead],” Latifi explained.
“But in Spa there’s a few times it was like ‘oh, has someone gone off in front and there’s just not a yellow flag?’ You don’t exactly know.
“So, it’s not ideal and especially on a track like this where everything is very close. Spa, Red Bull Ring the grandstands [are] so much further away from the track.
“I think the fans do need to behave a little bit.”
Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc says Turn 10 mistake cost him the chance to challenge for Dutch Grand Prix Formula 1 pole. Motorsport.com has the full details.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has explained how a mistake struggling in windy conditions at Zandvoort’s Turn 10 cost him pole against Max Verstappen in Dutch Grand Prix qualifying.
Leclerc had led the way after the first fliers in Q3 and set an even quicker first sector time on his final run to conclude qualifying.
But he could not then even better his personal best in sector two, which ended up being costly for Leclerc as a purple sector in the final third meant the Ferrari driver wound up 0.021s adrift of pole when everything had shaken out in the aftermath of Sergio Perez’s late spin.
Speaking in the post-qualifying press conference at Zandvoort, Leclerc initially outlined a Turn 10 “mistake” as the reason why he ended up behind Verstappen and when asked to elaborate further by Motorsport.com he replied: “I’m sure nobody did the perfect lap.
“Especially in these conditions, Turn 9 and 10 are two extremely tricky corners with the tailwind there and they are much more effected than anywhere else on track.
“So, it was very tricky. And then with the balance of my car, I struggled quite a little bit in Turn 10 and I lost the rear and I lost like a tenth or something.
“Looking at [the final results], if you do the perfect lap that you can get pole but on the other hand I’m sure Max and Carlos didn’t do the perfect lap either. So, the end result is that we are P2 today.”
In response to a question asking if he was frustrated not to end up on pole, Leclerc dismissed the suggestion as “obviously you are always targeting to be on pole”.
He added: “But apart from that, looking at the gap with Max today I did not expect that coming into Q3 after the Q1 and Q2 that we had, which were much more tricky.
“But at the end in Q3 the car felt quite good, I could push.”
Leclerc also revealed how he has not “been completely at ease with the balance of the car for the last few races on the quali runs” but reckoned “today felt a bit of a step better”.
“So, it’s good and now I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” he continued.
Leclerc put Ferrari’s Zandvoort Q3 improvement – Verstappen progressed from Q2 with just a single outing while the red cars required an additional run in that segment – down to trying “different things on the out lap and at the end it was a little bit better”.
These efforts meant he was left with “a bit of a stronger front” after he had “struggled with understeer” in the previous qualifying events he had previously mentioned.
“We need to work on that [further], but for the race instead I felt more confident so I’m a bit more confident for tomorrow,” Leclerc concluded.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton commented that a front row was possible without yellows, but pole position was “highly optimistic”. Motorsport.com provides the story.
Lewis Hamilton thinks he could have qualified on the front row at Zandvoort had yellow flags not ruined his final Formula 1 qualifying lap, but doubts pole was within reach.
Mercedes bounced back from a difficult weekend at Spa to qualify fourth and sixth for the Dutch Grand Prix with Hamilton and teammate George Russell getting in the mix with the Ferrari and Red Bull cars.
Hamilton ended qualifying four-tenths of a second off Max Verstappen’s pole position time, but was forced to abandon his final effort in Q3 following a spin for Sergio Perez.
“I think if we hadn’t had the yellow flag, we’d have hopefully been fighting for the front row,” Hamilton said, calling the result “really positive” after struggling so much at Spa last weekend.
“So that’s really positive. I hope that for the deficit we normally have that we closed the deficit on a single lap, if that can then reflect to our race pace, that would be awesome.”
Although Hamilton thought the front row was possible, he doubted he could have beaten Verstappen to P1 and scored his first pole of the year.
“I think it’s highly optimistic,” said Hamilton. “They were still a bit too quick. But I think the front row was possible.”
But Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff felt confident Hamilton was in the mix for pole, revealing the team’s data showed he was up on Verstappen’s time before lifting off.
“On our own car data and we looked at that a lot, we were actually a tenth up before the incident,” said Wolff.
“Now, we don’t know how we would have come out of it. But think we were definitely [fighting] for pole position. And that’s a good feeling.
“We want more. And I think we could have been there or thereabouts.”
Mercedes was always expected to bounce back at Zandvoort given the more favourable track layout and warmer temperatures than the team faced at Spa, where Hamilton finished over a second off pole.
Hamilton said he was “definitely optimistic for the race”, but noted it was “just difficult to overtake here, so we’ll see.”
“I’ve not done a long run, but George did and it looked quite good. The car was feeling strong today and I felt like I could go quicker.
“I hope that translates to tomorrow, as I said, but I’ll definitely be gunning and pushing as hard as I can for a podium.”
Russell was also hopeful of getting in the fight with Ferrari for the top three on Sunday, but was left ruing a difficult Q2 that forced him into taking a second set of fresh tyres.
“It was our Q2 lack of performance which caught us by surprise,” said Russell.
“We had to take a second set and then only had the one set in Q3. So it was a bit odd and that really scuffed up our overall plan really.”
Russell felt the team could not “truly understand why we were so slow at Spa and why from the get-go we showed more promising performance this weekend.”
He added: “But ultimately, Max and Red Bull are too quick for us. Our fight and battle is with Ferrari at the moment.”
Fernando Alonso was left frustrated after he came across the Red Bull of Sergio Perez on his final run in Q2 at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
Alonso, who had sailed through Q1 in ninth place and was eighth after the first runs in Q2, ended the session in 13th.
The two-time champion found Perez’s Red Bull running slowly on an in-lap through the Turn 9 right-hander.
The Spaniard was convinced that the had the potential to start well inside the top 10, and made his frustration clear on team radio after realising that he had been knocked out.
“I think it was the traffic in Q2,” he said of his session. “I was P6, P7 all session so far. It was the same case in Q1 and then in Q2.
“On this second attempt, I was half a second better than the previous lap into Turn 9, and then I had a misunderstanding with a Red Bull in front of me, and we lost a lot in that lap. So unfortunately we are not in Q3, but the pace was there to be in Q3.
“If it’s in Q1, you have plenty of time. The first attempt in Q2 also, you have another set. When it’s the moment of truth and the circuit is in the best conditions and you have traffic all in that lap, it’s a bit of a shame, but it’s way it is.
“Zandvoort is a very small track, very narrow, it’s going to be always more difficult here. Monza, it’s going to be a different thing, with longer straights it’s easier to let people go.
“So unfortunately it happened to us today, and it compromised a little bit the weekend.”
The Alpine A522 appeared well suited to high-speed Spa last week, where Esteban Ocon and Alonso qualified fifth and sixth.
Alonso believes that his car is almost as competitive around the very different and tight Zandvoort, although Ocon struggled more to find pace.
“I’m not sure, in Q1 I was P6 on the first attempt,” he said. “Carlos [Sainz] was P7, so we are not that far compared to Spa.
“At least in my side of the garage, I think the other side did struggle a bit more so far this weekend, but let’s see tomorrow if we can make some places.
“It’s going to be extremely challenging. Zandvoort is not a circuit you want to start not in the top 10, but nothing we can do.”
Asked how much overtaking we might see on Sunday he said: “Not that much, I think you need to have a really [big] pace advantage or a tyre advantage to pass cars. So it’s going to be as difficult at least as last year.
“It’s going to be more difficult for sure when you are in a chain of cars, but at the same time it’s up to you to open it a little bit later.”
He also acknowledged that tyre overheating could be an issue in the race.
“This can happen, also tomorrow. It was the case today yes, but tomorrow we expect some cloudy conditions, even some rain around. So I think it’s going to be a different day.”
Source: Motorsport.com