Norris takes pole position for Dutch Grand Prix
- Kavi Khandelwal
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
Every Dutch Grand Prix since Zandvoort's return in 2021 has been won from pole. This qualifying session decides who inherits that advantage for Sunday. Will George Russell be able to carry over his luck from the Sprint? Or will Kimi Antonelli get a chance to extend his lead?
Friday's Sprint Qualifying set the early tone. Russell beat reigning world champion Lando Norris to pole by four hundredths of a second, with Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri splitting the front four by fractions more. Championship leader Antonelli could only manage fifth after a trip through the gravel, while Lewis Hamilton trailed further back in seventh. Max Verstappen, chasing a fourth consecutive home pole, sat sixth.
The Sprint from earlier in the day saw Russell convert pole into a victory, leading every lap for his third Sprint win of the season. Leclerc passed Norris for a second on lap 18, with Antonelli fourth after jumping Piastri at the start. Verstappen and Hamilton ended in the same positions they started in.
Antonelli's championship lead offers less of a cushion if Q3 goes the way Saturday morning did. Verstappen still attempts to chase a fourth home pole in front of his own crowd for the last time ever.
Q1 – Piastri edges Norris to top the times
Nico Hülkenberg was the first out on track, with the midfield and backmarker runners following his lead out of the pits. Yuki Tsunoda set the first representative benchmark of the session with a 1:14.287, weekend teammate Arvid Lindblad slotting in 0.333s behind on a used set of softs to Tsunoda's new rubber.
Leclerc was the first front-runner to post a time, before Hamilton and Lawson moved ahead of him, Hamilton's 1:13.406 setting the new mark. Lawson and Verstappen followed in second and third, separated from each other by as little as 0.178s. Norris then took over at the top with a 1:13.060, only for teammate Piastri to go 0.212s quicker moments later.
Antonelli briefly rose to third, 0.285s off Piastri's pace, before Russell went second in the sister Mercedes, just 0.091s shy of his teammate's benchmark, splitting the McLaren pair and demoting Antonelli to fourth.
Hamilton then had a moment of his own, locking up into Turn 1 and running through the gravel before returning to the pits.
Aston Martin's upgrades had looked promising through the early running, with the team hopeful of getting at least one car into Q2, but it came to nothing, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll eventually classified 18th and 19th. Stroll's session also included a deleted lap for exceeding track limits at Turn 13, having briefly sat inside the top 16, which dropped him to 21st before a late improvement lifted him back up to 13th with a minute remaining.
Elsewhere, Lindblad had the measure of Tsunoda across the session despite reporting understeer on his way out of the pit lane, while Gasly was noted by the FIA for an unsafe release.
In the closing minutes, Norris improved with a purple second sector but a yellow third, moving to second, 0.085s off Piastri's benchmark of 1:12.610. Lawson complained of a lack of grip over the radio, before Hamilton went quicker still to take second himself, 0.063s off the pace.
Gabriel Bortoleto rounded out the top 10, half a second off the benchmark, while Carlos Sainz was left on the wrong side of the cut in 17th, narrowly missing out on progression.
Q1 exits:
P17 – Carlos Sainz
P18 – Fernando Alonso
P19 – Lance Stroll
P20 – Oliver Bearman
P21 – Valtteri Bottas
P22 – Sergio Pérez
Q2 – Norris tops final runs as Hamilton repeats Q1 mistake
Verstappen was first out for the second part of qualifying, with Hülkenberg setting the first representative time of 1:12.879. Antonelli set the initial benchmark among the front-runners with a 1:12.390, before Russell moved to the top with a 1:11.596.
Verstappen slotted into third, 0.675s off Russell's pace, with Lawson close behind in fourth, only four-thousandths shy of the Red Bull.
Norris then produced purple times across all three sectors to go top with a 1:11.860, leaving little over a tenth covering the top four. That lead lasted only moments, as Piastri, the defending winner of the race at Zandvoort, went 0.026s quicker than his teammate to take over P1.
Lindblad moved into seventh off the back of Piastri's new benchmark, 0.691s down, with Tsunoda close behind in eleventh, only twelve-thousandths shy of the Racing Bulls pace. Bortoleto sat eighth, suggesting there was more to come from the Audi.
Into the second half of the session, Verstappen set the opening time of the closing runs with a 1:11.874 to move into third, while Piastri improved his own benchmark to 1:11.641. Antonelli remained adrift of the frontrunners throughout.
Norris ultimately reclaimed the top spot with a 1:11.628, 0.013s clear of Piastri. Hamilton ran deep into Turn 1 again during the closing minutes, and Russell locked up and went off track as well, though neither incident affected their progression.
Hülkenberg was unable to escape the elimination zone, ending the session 13th. Tsunoda finished 11th, 0.999s off the fastest time, not enough to carry him through, while Lindblad's improvement to 10th secured his place in Q3.
Q2 exits:
P11 – Yuki Tsunoda
P12 – Pierre Gasly
P13 – Nico Hülkenberg
P14 – Franco Colapinto
P15 – Esteban Ocon
P16 – Alex Albon
Q3 – Norris snatches pole as rain arrives late
With rain expected in the final five minutes of the session, all the pressure fell onto the first flying laps. Norris set the initial benchmark with a 1:11.344, Piastri following in second. Antonelli then went third, 0.331s off Norris's pace, before Verstappen moved into fourth.
Russell took over second with a lap 0.151s slower than Norris, demoting Piastri, and Leclerc slotted in between Piastri and Antonelli. Lindblad rose to eighth, only for Hamilton to reclaim the position with an improved lap of his own — a result the Briton later admitted was a bit disappointing. Verstappen and Lawson rounded out sixth and seventh, with Bortoleto holding tenth.
Norris and Russell then traded push laps through the second half of the session as the rain that had been forecast began to fall, albeit lightly. Russell was first to react, going purple in the first sector with a time 0.2s quicker than Norris's provisional pole. Norris answered with a purple second sector of his own, and for a moment it was Antonelli who found himself on top of the times.
However, Norris crossed the line to take pole back, 0.102s clear of Russell in second, with Antonelli completing the front three. Piastri rounded out the top four, a tenth and a half off Antonelli's pace. Hamilton asked his team to check the car once the order settled, with Leclerc having briefly climbed as high as fifth before slipping back, and Verstappen and Lawson filling out the rest of the top eight. Bortoleto held ninth, with Lindblad completing the top 10.
Top 10
P1 – Lando Norris
P2 – George Russell
P3 – Kimi Antonelli
P4 – Oscar Piastri
P5 – Lewis Hamilton
P6 – Charles Leclerc
P7 – Max Verstappen
P8 – Liam Lawson
P9 – Gabriel Bortoleto
P10 – Arvid Lindblad
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