Max Verstappen achieved a popular pole position in front his home orange army fans. It was a frantic qualifying session featuring two red flag moments and yet the defending champion beat Lando Norris by half a second.
The Red Bull driver set a time of one minute, 10.567 seconds lap, which remained untouchable in the final moments of Q3 to ensure a third consecutive pole at his local race to the delight of his fans.
Although the McLarens had headed the order prior to the Charles Leclerc-enforced red flag towards the end of qualifying, Verstappen set himself up for an all-or-nothing flyer at the end and set a difficult benchmark to beat.
Norris came close and had been up on Verstappen at the close of the first sector, but lost time in the middle part of the lap to cast aside his pole chances.
An already wild qualifying session assisted by a drying circuit came to a head in Q3, where the brace of red flags compressed the final hot laps into a final four-minute window.
Logan Sargeant produced the first red flag in Q3 having just crossed the line to slot in behind team-mate Alex Albon at the top of the charts, after sustaining a heavy crash at Turn 2 after losing the rear to bring out a red flag.
The restart came with eight minutes on the board and, although Albon looked set to better his time, he instead elected to retreat to the pits and handed George Russell the chance to move to the top of the times.
But the McLarens then went to the top, Norris setting a lap with one minute, 12.049 seconds to claim a time just 0.2 seconds clear of teammate Piastri – Verstappen only able to slot into third.
Leclerc then washed out on the exit of Turn 9 and clouted the barrier, prompting a further red flag with just four minutes left on the clock.
Verstappen’s lap proved unbeatable for Norris, while Russell snatched a provisional third position from Albon’s grasp at the very end of the session as the Williams driver had been on excellent form throughout Saturday’s sessions.
Albon had earlier headed Q1, and broke into Q3 with apparent ease despite Williams’ cool expectations for the Zandvoort weekend.
Fernando Alonso bagged fifth over Carlos Sainz, while Sergio Perez could only manage seventh, 1.3 seconds behind Verstappen’s benchmark.
Oscar Piastri was eighth fastest, ahead of Q3 crashers Leclerc and Sargeant, who nonetheless made his first Q3 appearance.
Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in Q2 by improvements from Norris and Sainz at the death of the second part of qualifying, having been unable to improve during his final attempts at a quick lap.
Hamilton was hovering on the precipice of the elimination zone and, his position became more precarious when Sainz employed a fresh set of intermediates to get through to Q3.
Norris then found more time to overturn, as Hamilton appeared to be baulked by Yuki Tsunoda when attempting to complete a lap.
Lance Stroll looked to have made his way into Q2, but Sargeant’s late flyer pushed the Aston Martin driver into P11 and out of qualifying. Pierre Gasly moved ahead of Hamilton but only set a time good enough for P12 as a solid first sector faded out over the rest of his last lap.
Tsunoda was P14, just 0.02 seconds clear of Nico Hulkenberg who had briefly made a play for a Q3 appearance before sliding down the order in a frenetic end to the session.
Leclerc narrowly avoided becoming the biggest scalp in Q1, but his final lap in the opening part of qualifying lifted him out of the drop zone by just 0.05 seconds over Zhou Guanyu.
The Ferrari driver was in the bottom five with seconds left in a frantic opening part of qualifying, where improving track conditions ensured that the timing board resembled a slot machine with frequent changes of position.
Despite mistakes on his final lap, having missed the apex at Turn 11 and put him off-line for Turn 12, a subsequent slide on the exit of Turn 13 could not stop the Ferrari driver from progressing at Zhou’s expense.
Zhou, who sustained a Turn 13 drift on his own best lap, headed Esteban Ocon in Q1 while Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas, and rookie Liam Lawson were also eliminated in the opening phase.
This was a tricky qualifying for Liam Lawson as he was drafting into the AlphaTauri seat after one practice session following Daniel Ricciardo suffering a hand injury in FP2. So with limited running, the best Lawson can do is get some racing experience.
Dutch Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:10.567
2 Lando Norris McLaren 1:11.104
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:11.294
4 Alexander Albon Williams 1:11.419
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:11.506
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:11.754
7 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:11.880
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:11.938
9 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:12.665
10 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:16.748
11 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:20.121
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:20.128
13 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:20.151
14 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTaur 1:20.230
15 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:20.250
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:22.067
17 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:22.110
18 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:22.192
19 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:22.260
20 Liam Lawson AlphaTauri 1:23.420
Dutch Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Max Verstappen made it three pole positions in a row at the Dutch Grand Prix with another imperious display during Saturday’s qualifying session at Zandvoort, pulling out a stupendous final lap to beat Lando Norris and George Russell at the end of a crash-filled, wet to dry affair.
In the dying moments of a pole shootout that was red-flagged twice due to crashes for Williams rookie Logan Sargeant and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, the passionate home crowd were sent wild by Verstappen’s ultimate table-topping time of 1m 10.567s.
That put him a whopping half a second clear of his nearest rivals, the McLaren of Norris and Mercedes of Russell, who led the Silver Arrows’ charge after team mate Lewis Hamilton suffered a shock Q2 elimination.
Alex Albon was another star of qualifying as he put his Williams up in fourth, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who was 1.3 seconds slower than Verstappen.
Oscar Piastri had been in the hunt for a maiden F1 pole but dropped down the timesheets during the final laps, leaving him eighth on the grid in front of Leclerc and Sargeant, who watched the rest of Q3 from the sidelines after their shunts.
Hamilton had to settle for 13th after his aforementioned Q2 exit, slotting behind Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and the lead Alpine of Pierre Gasly, leaving the seven-time world champion with a challenging recovery drive at the tight, twisty Dutch venue.
Yuki Tsunoda followed in 14th, with stewards set to investigate a potential impeding incident between the AlphaTauri man and Hamilton after the session, while Nico Hulkenberg was the slowest of the Q2 runners en route to 15th.
Alfa Romeo lost both cars at the first qualifying hurdle as Zhou Guanyu, having spun out of FP3 earlier in the day, narrowly missed the cut in 16th via a slide through the penultimate corner, with team mate Bottas all the way back in 19th.
Esteban Ocon was a lowly 17th in the other Alpine, having lost out with the timing of his final run, while Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, who had a crash of his own in final practice, went too deep at Turn 1 on his final run and wound up 18th.
Liam Lawson marked his first qualifying session with 20th and last, a second adrift of the pack, after the young New Zealander was thrown in at the deep end as the replacement for the injured Daniel Ricciardo with just one practice hour in wet conditions.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.verstappen-tops-dramatic-wet-dry-zandvoort-qualifying-to-extend-run-of-dutch.1DV5oQBytDNnxZAiaz9Xe0.html
Lando Norris rated the second half of his best Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix qualifying lap as the worst he’s ever produced on his way to the front row.
The McLaren driver was the best of the rest behind the dominant Max Verstappen, qualifying second but some 0.537s off the Red Bull polesitter at Zandvoort.
Norris briefly looked a threat for pole in the final Q3 runs, going quickest in the first sector, but conceded his second half of the lap, which is where he lost so much time to Verstappen, was poor by his own standards.
“The first half the lap was mega. The second half of the lap was probably one of the worst second halves that I’ve done,” Norris said. “So, it peaked very early on. It’s tough but I really enjoy these conditions. I’ve always enjoyed the conditions. It’s when we do well. I’m taking the P2 still.”
Asked what caused his second half of the lap drop, Norris replied: “The driver [peaked]. The tyres were good until the end. The driver peaked very early. I’ve got a bit of work to do. Not the most comfortable but good enough. I’ll take it.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/norris-worst-second-half-lap-still-enough-second-f1-dutch-gp-quali/10511904/
Max Verstappen expressed his satisfaction after pulling a lap out of the bag at the end of Saturday’s qualifying session at Zandvoort to score a third successive Dutch Grand Prix pole position.
Verstappen trailed McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after the first Q3 laps but rose to the fore following two red flags with a stunning time of 1m 10.567s, putting him more than half a second clear of the field.
“It was a very tricky qualifying, starting of course with the intermediates, but also the track surface was quite slippery, [with] the new tarmac,” said Verstappen, who will share the front row with Norris, and was more than a second quicker than seventh-placed team mate Sergio Perez.
“It was all about putting your laps in but also staying out of trouble. I think we managed that quite well, but then also at the end when we could go onto the slick tyres, [where] it was one dry line in some places. We had to risk it a bit, but that last lap was very enjoyable.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.we-had-to-risk-it-verstappen-hails-very-enjoyable-final-lap-to-net-third.6cPZvSI7mT8OvN5PLXlrvX.html
Alex Albon has explained how a headwind at Zandvoort has “hidden the normal problems” suffered by Williams to enable him to qualify fourth for Formula 1’s 2023 Dutch Grand Prix.
Albon topped Q1 on Saturday, ran third in Q2 and then completed the second row of the grid in the final shootout, having lapped 0.852 seconds adrift of clear polesitter Max Verstappen.
Albon had expected a “rubbish” performance for the slippery Williams given the high-downforce requirements of Zandvoort which made the track “one of the worst ones” for the team.
He had anticipated a tailwind into the medium-speed Turn 9 right-hander but this changed “180 degrees” to become a headwind, which paved the way for Albon’s surprise showing.
The Thai-Briton told Sky Sports: “There’s been this headwind in a lot of these kinds of low-speed corners, braking corners, and we always struggle with low-speed braking.
“When you’ve got this headwind, it makes everything feel better, it gives you that front load on the car and hopefully that wind’s not changing tomorrow [for the race], I hope.
“It’s hidden the normal problems that we have in our car.
“The tailwind corners have been normally high-speed corners where our car has never been that bad at, so I think there’s an element of that going on.”
As per the team’s strong one-lap pace at Silverstone, Albon reckoned Williams now needed to “reverse-engineer” the weekend to “understand why it’s been so strong”.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/albon-headwind-masked-williams-problems-in-f1-dutch-gp-qualifying/10511952/