The Dutch Grand Prix will no longer be held at Zandvoort after the 2026 season, with the race organizers opting to bring the event to a close. The previous contract ran until 2025 but a one-year extension has been agreed before the race will drop …
The Dutch Grand Prix will no longer be held at Zandvoort after the 2026 season, with the race organizers opting to bring the event to a close.
The previous contract ran until 2025 but a one-year extension has been agreed before the race will drop off the calendar, after what will have been a run of six years. The additional year will include a Sprint event held in the final season that it is part of the schedule, and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali says the idea of hosting races on alternate years was discussed before the promoter opted against continuing.
“I am incredibly grateful for the work that the team at the Dutch Grand Prix have done in recent years,” Domenicali said. “They raised the bar for European grands prix in terms of event spectacle and entertainment, supported the development of young talent by hosting F2, F3 and our F1 Academy series, and have also pioneered sustainable solutions that have inspired our events around the world as we drive towards being Net Zero by 2030.
“All parties positively collaborated to find a solution to extend the race, with many options, including alternation or annual events on the table, and we respect the decision from the promoter to finish its amazing run in 2026. I want to thank all the team at the Dutch Grand Prix and the Municipality of Zandvoort who have been fantastic partners to Formula 1.”
The return of the Dutch Grand Prix has coincided with huge success for Max Verstappen, who has been world champion in every year the race has run and this year’s second place is the only time he has failed to win at Zandvoort. The grand prix often takes on a party atmosphere, but director of the event Robert van Overdijk says there was not enough certainty to commit to hosting races long term.
“The Dutch Grand Prix is the result of a unique collaboration between SportVibes, TIG Sports, and Circuit Zandvoort, who shared the ambition of bringing the race back to the Netherlands,” van Overdijk said. “What we have achieved so far is undoubtedly a huge success. The appreciation from our visitors, drivers, and teams has been unprecedented, and we are incredibly proud of that.
“While today’s announcement signals the end of a monumental era, we are confident there is plenty more for fans to look forward to at the Dutch Grand Prix in 2025 and 2026, including the Sprint in 2026.
“We are a privately owned and operated business, and we must balance the opportunities presented by continuing to host the event, against other risks and responsibilities. We have decided to go out on a high with two more incredible Dutch Grands Prix in 2025 and 2026.
“We wanted to take this step while our event is adored and supported by passionate fans, residents, and the Formula 1 community. I want to thank Stefano Domenicali and all the team at Formula 1 for the hard work that has seen multiple contract extensions realized and the Dutch Grand Prix be such a success.”
Charles Leclerc says Ferrari doesn’t understand how it became so competitive in race trim at the Dutch Grand Prix, after being surprised to finish third at Zandvoort. Ferrari had a tough weekend before the race, with Leclerc qualifying sixth and …
Charles Leclerc says Ferrari doesn’t understand how it became so competitive in race trim at the Dutch Grand Prix, after being surprised to finish third at Zandvoort.
Ferrari had a tough weekend before the race, with Leclerc qualifying sixth and Carlos Sainz failing to reach Q3, but both cars made impressive progress on Sunday to rise to third and fifth respectively. Leclerc was able to hold off Oscar Piastri for the final podium spot and crossed the line just 2.5 seconds behind Max Verstappen, but is at a loss as to where Ferrari’s performance came from.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]
“That is a very good question, and I think the best question is also to understand why we were nine tenths off [in qualifying] and suddenly pretty strong [in the race],” Leclerc said. “The car is exactly the same. [In qualifying] we’ve been struggling like crazy. [In the race], we were strong. And these are the kind of things that we’ve got to work on.
“I think as much as we analyze every bad surprises we have during a season, we also need to understand when we do something good. For now, I don’t think as a team we have the explanation. So it’s a great result. I’m really happy to be standing on the podium. And I think it’s a really good surprise. However, we’ve got to understand in order to perform more often at our best.”
Piastri had been running ahead of Leclerc at the start of the race but Ferrari pulled off an early first pit stop to undercut both the McLaren and George Russell. While Piastri quickly cleared Russell after his own stop he couldn’t get past Leclerc, something that also surprised the Ferrari driver.
“It wasn’t [easy], because my engineer was telling me about Oscar’s lap time, which when he was in free air was quite a bit quicker than me, I think nearly a second. Then when he got closer, I started to push a bit more and gain five tenths. And I think with the dirty air, he probably lost three or four tenths.
“He managed to stay behind and to put me quite under pressure for two, three laps, but then couldn’t stay there because of the overheating. It was a really good strategy. I did not expect to keep that third place until the end, but we did a really good job as a team. I don’t think there was anything more we could have done.”
With the Italian Grand Prix at Monza this coming weekend, Leclerc admits he is finding it tough to have an idea how Ferrari will perform as it will bring upgrades to its home race.
“Again, it’s very, very difficult to predict. If you will have asked me that question [on Saturday], I will have told you it will be very difficult. [Now] is much better. If we manage to understand what’s going on with our car, then I’m quite optimistic about the future. But for now, we don’t quite have the understanding yet.
“We’ve got an upgrade coming very soon. Now I can say actually because Fred [Vasseur] said it, so it will be in Monza. And that, I hope, will help us and help us close the gap. But until the upgrades, I always said that the priority for us was just to do a damage limitation. And [at Zandvoort], we were targeting P6.
“Realistically, I think on paper, that’s what we were fighting for. However, after three, four laps, the pace was there. And we could do P3, which is a good surprise again. So good points. However, now I just hope that the upgrades helps us to do a step forward.”
Haas will not move its trucks and equipment out of the Netherlands until Monday after the Dutch Grand Prix while it waits for Uralkali to acknowledge receipt of its sponsorship funds. The team was ordered to return a payment to its former title …
Haas will not move its trucks and equipment out of the Netherlands until Monday after the Dutch Grand Prix while it waits for Uralkali to acknowledge receipt of its sponsorship funds.
The team was ordered to return a payment to its former title sponsor Uralkali back in June, following a ruling by a Swiss tribunal, and had accepted the findings. However, with payment not received ahead of this weekend’s race, Uralkali sent bailiffs to itemize Haas’ equipment and be able to prevent the team from leaving the country until it transferred the money.
Payment was made by the team on Friday, but with Uralkali yet to acknowledge receipt of the funds, RACER understands Haas will remain in the Netherlands until Monday. Once confirmation of the receipt of payment comes through, then the team’s trucks will immediately depart for next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Uralkali was the Haas title sponsor in 2021 and at the start of 2022, but the contract was terminated following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions remain in place against Russia that made it complex to pay large sums of money to the company, but the dispute did not have an impact on Haas’ ability to race at Zandvoort.
Haas has been permitted to return equipment to its suppliers following Sunday’s race, including to its technical partner Ferrari and Formula 1’s tire supplier Pirelli.
Max Verstappen admitted “something has been going wrong” with his Red Bull car as the Formula 1 season has unfolded, after being decisively beaten by Lando Norris in the Dutch Grand Prix. Norris took pole position by over 0.35s on Saturday, and …
Max Verstappen admitted “something has been going wrong” with his Red Bull car as the Formula 1 season has unfolded, after being decisively beaten by Lando Norris in the Dutch Grand Prix.
Norris took pole position by over 0.35s on Saturday, and despite losing the lead to Verstappen at the start of the race he overtook the Red Bull and went on to win by more than 22 seconds. Having won seven of the first 10 races, Verstappen hasn’t won in the last five, and says the RB20 has become increasingly challenging to drive.
“The whole weekend has been the same,” Verstappen said. “I had pretty much the same balance from FP1 all the way to the race. I mean, the limitations are the same. So it’s just very hard to solve at the moment.
“It just seems like we are too slow, but also quite bad on [tire] deg at the moment. That’s a bit weird because I think the last few years, normally we’ve been quite good on that. So something has been going wrong lately with the car that we need to understand and we need to quickly try to improve.
“It’s just not a connected balance, front or rear. It wasn’t there in the first few races. But something in the car has made it more difficult to drive and it’s very hard to pinpoint where that is coming from at the moment. That is then hurting our one-lap performance, but also our long runs.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]
Norris secured the fastest lap on the final lap of the race to cut Verstappen’s lead by eight points, but with a 70-point advantage still in hand the Dutchman says he isn’t worrying too much yet.
“I think this weekend was just a bad weekend in general. So we need to understand that,” he said. “But the last few races, they haven’t really been fantastic. So that, I think in a sense, was already a bit alarming. But we know that we don’t need to panic. We are just trying to improve the situation, and that’s what we are working on, but F1 is very complicated.”
Lando Norris says his Dutch Grand Prix victory is the first time McLaren has had a dominant car, after overtaking Max Verstappen to take his second career win. Verstappen took the lead from Norris on the run to Turn 1, a situation that marked the …
Lando Norris says his Dutch Grand Prix victory is the first time McLaren has had a dominant car, after overtaking Max Verstappen to take his second career win.
Verstappen took the lead from Norris on the run to Turn 1, a situation that marked the sixth occasion that Norris has failed to lead at the end of the first lap when he has started from pole position. However, he was able to overtake the Red Bull driver before the first round of pit stops and went on to win by over 22s — marking the biggest margin of victory this season.
“It feels amazing once again,” Norris said. “I wouldn’t say a perfect race, because of lap one again, but afterward it was beautiful. The pace was very strong. The car was unbelievable today, so I could get comfortable. I could push and get past Max, which was the main thing, and just go from there. Honestly, quite a straightforward race; still tough, but very enjoyable.
“Obviously, didn’t start in the most optimistic way, but the pace was unbelievable from the beginning and I could go with Max quite happily at the start. I just didn’t expect our pace to be probably as good as what it was today, which is a good thing. It’s nice to be kind of a little bit surprised by this.
“As soon as I got ahead, it was quite straightforward. I could push. I had good confidence to push the whole race, save the tires a little bit, but just get in a good rhythm and go from there. The car felt amazing … and made my life easier for sure, so a big thanks to the team.”
Norris acknowledges that McLaren had the best all-around package across multiple circuits for some time, but views the Zandvoort performance as the first time the team has had a clear advantage.
“This whole weekend, I think we’ve had the best car,” he said. “We’ve not had a dominant car at any point this season, I would say. Even if you go back to Hungary, as much as people hate me to say it, Max was still very quick in Hungary. He just didn’t have a great race, but his pace was still very, very strong.
“Obviously we know more information than people do on the outside, so we can comment in much more factual ways than people can who are just watching on TV and taking their picks and guesses.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]
“We’ve had, on average, the best car. We probably should have won two, three more races as a team, but we didn’t. We’re not saying anything more than that. We should have won and we didn’t, and it’s because we’ve not done a good enough job. I didn’t do a good enough job, and we worked hard over the summer break to just try and take a step back and reset and go again.
“So yes, we’ve had a great car. This was our first time we brought some good upgrades to the car since Miami. They worked very well then. They’ve worked once again now. It’s still a long way to go, so we still have to keep working hard because this is just Zandvoort. Monza is a completely different circuit. We’ll keep our heads down and keep chipping away.”
Qualifying on pole position on Saturday led to Norris receiving multiple questions about his race starts, and he admits he wasn’t certain he’d have the performance to overtake Verstappen on track having lost the lead, but says he didn’t get flustered as it was a situation he’s been in before.
“After yesterday, we were confident the pace was going to be good, for sure,” he said. “My long-run pace on Friday was very good, but you don’t do anything more than, like, 10, 11 laps, and you never know in the 72-lap race what’s going to happen. I would [also say] Max’s pace didn’t look bad on Friday.
“You could already pick apart a bit of it and kind of give yourself some confidence. It wasn’t like we came into here thinking, ‘Yeah, we can easily just pass him on track,’ and pull the gap that we did today. It’s just not often that I’ve been in the lead and being able to control things and do what I want to do and look after the tires and have clean air and stuff like that. All of this makes a big difference in the end of the day, so I didn’t expect things to go as well as it did.
“After getting done into Turn 1 and off the line, I was actually just surprisingly calm, maybe because I’m a bit used to going backwards at the start. I’m very prepared for those kind of scenarios, and I was very calm and just, ‘OK, well, what can I do now?’ That was just to look ahead, start saving tires, see what I had pace-wise.
“Really, even like lap 10, 11, 12, 13, I managed to catch Max a little bit again and started to gain quite a bit of optimism that, actually, I could almost pass him on track, so I had two opportunities. The first one, I wasn’t quite close enough. The next lap I did it and I could get my head down from there.”
Lando Norris dominated the Dutch Grand Prix to lead home local hero Max Verstappen to claim his second GP victory in Formula 1. It was the first time Norris has converted pole into a win in his F1 career, though it came after the Briton lost the …
Lando Norris dominated the Dutch Grand Prix to lead home local hero Max Verstappen to claim his second GP victory in Formula 1.
It was the first time Norris has converted pole into a win in his F1 career, though it came after the Briton lost the lead to a fast-starting Verstappen immediately off the line. It was the fifth time in a row he’s failed to hold top spot at the end of the first lap after starting from P1, but the Briton was undeterred in an upgraded McLaren he knew had the pace to fight for victory.
Norris bided his time for the first 15 laps before unleashing ferocious pace to reel in Verstappen, closing the gap to nothing on the front straight at the beginning of lap 17.
“My tires are just numb,” Verstappen radioed. “They don’t grip.”
Norris took advantage of the Dutchman’s problems on the following tour, when a superior launch out of the last corner easily blasted him past Verstappen with the assistance of DRS, propelling him into the lead.
Verstappen neutralized Norris’ pole yet again at the start, but this time it just postponed the inevitable. Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
Verstappen attempted to fight back with DRS on the next lap, but Norris was too quick. The gap blew out by more than three seconds after just five laps as Norris stamped his authority on the race.
“I can’t go faster,” Verstappen radioed. “The car doesn’t respond to my inputs.
Red Bull Racing wasted little time heeding the complaints, hauling Verstappen in for his sole pit stop at the end of lap 27. Norris, by then with a lead of more than five seconds, covered on the next lap and rejoined with that advantage barely diminished.
It was the race won for Norris, who even on fresh hard tires continued to wield a decisive performance advantage over Verstappen, allowing him to cruise to the checkered flag. His gap grew to an imperious 22.9s at the flag, with Norris setting the fastest lap of the race on the final tour to underscore his domination.
“It feels amazing,” he said. “I wouldn’t say a perfect race, because of lap 1 again, but afterwards it was beautiful.
“From probably lap 5, 6, 7 I expected Max to start pushing and get a bit of a gap, and he never did, so from that point I knew we were in for a good fight.
“He seemed to keep dropping off and my pace was getting better. It’s a nice feeling inside the car, and especially when I got past. The pace was very strong. The car was unbelievable today.”
Verstappen was sanguine about losing his home race for the first time since it returned to the calendar in 2021, conceding his car didn’t have the pace to compete.
“We had a good start, so we tried everything we could today, but throughout the race I think it was quite clear we’re not quick enough, so I tried to be second today,” he said. “I just tried to do my own race… and that was second today.”
Charles Leclerc held off a fast-finishing Oscar Piastri in the battle for the final podium place in a well-executed race by team and driver.
Leclerc moved up to fifth on the first lap behind George Russell and Piastri, the former snatching third form the latter at the first turn. The Mercedes was markedly less competitive than Norris and Verstappen in the lead but was quick enough in a straight line to make it difficult to pass, bottling both Piastri and Leclerc behind as the top two broke away, cementing this as a battle for third.
The Ferrari pit wall was alive to the challenge and astutely called in Leclerc for fresh tires on lap 24. Dramatically faster on fresh hards, Russell had no hope of covering the undercut when he stopped on the following tour, earning Leclerc the place.
Rather than commit to a losing fight, McLaren extended Piastri’s stint to lap 33, allowing him to take advantage of the clean air ahead of him. Immediately he demonstrated similarly devastating pace as Norris had shown in overcoming Verstappen.
Piastri dropped to fifth behind Leclerc and Russell but easily reeled in and passed the Mercedes in just seven laps. He was on Leclerc’s tail within another 10 laps, but by now the best of his tires had been used, making the Ferrari a far harder proposition to pass.
Leclerc, typically disciplined despite his uncompetitive Ferrari, didn’t put a foot wrong, executing a perfect defensive drive to hold onto the podium.
“Very, very surprised,” he said. “I’m not very often happy with P3, but I think with today’s race we can be extremely happy with the job we’ve done on a difficult weekend for the team. I’m really happy to start the second half like this.”
Leclerc was as surprised as anyone to be on the podium for Ferrari after out-dueling Piastri. Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Piastri finished fourth ahead of Carlos Sainz, the Spaniard finishing fifth thanks to a rapid final stint highlighted by a long duel with Sergio Perez, who he overcame with a late-braking move into the first turn on lap 47. The pass had him set his sights on Russell, who he looked certain to get by easily before Mercedes pitted the Briton for a set of softs.
It was a curious strategy from Mercedes, dropping Russell behind Perez and forcing him to pass the Mexican just to retake sixth. Russell started the stint with formidable speed that had him on track to get ahead of the Red Bull, but his red-walled tires ran out of puff long before he caught Perez, leaving him 5s adrift after the bungled call.
Sixth for Perez was a decent return despite losing a place to Sainz, the Mexican having demonstrated similar pace to Verstappen but with the additional handicap of being bottled behind the Russell-led train in the opening stint.
Lewis Hamilton recovered six places to eighth with an aggressive two-stop strategy that started and ended with sets of the soft tire, doing most of his passing in the opening stint.
Pierre Gasly held his grid spot to finish ninth ahead of Fernando Alonso, who collected the final point of the race for Aston Martin.
Nico Hulkenberg finished 11th ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll, who battled for the final point in the final stint.
Alex Albon led home Esteban Ocon, Logan Sargeant, Yuki Tsunoda, Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
Alex Albon has lost eighth place on the grid at the Dutch Grand Prix after his Williams car was found to not be compliant with the technical regulations. Williams brought a major upgrade to Zandvoort that included a complete new floor – comprising …
Alex Albon has lost eighth place on the grid at the Dutch Grand Prix after his Williams car was found to not be compliant with the technical regulations.
Williams brought a major upgrade to Zandvoort that included a complete new floor — comprising floor body, floor fences and floor edge — as well as diffuser, sidepods, engine cover and the central air intake. It’s the floor that caught the attention of the FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer, who stated, “The floor body was found to lie outside the regulatory volume mentioned in [the technical regulations],” and referred the matter to the stewards.
After a hearing involving Williams personnel, Albon’s car was excluded from the qualifying results.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]
“The team did not dispute the calibration of the FIA measuring system and the measurement of the car, but stated that their own measurements have produced different results.
“The stewards determine that the result of the measurement conducted with the FIA system in Parc Ferme is the relevant one and the due process prescribed by the regulations has been followed. Therefore the standard penalty for such an infringement is applied.”
Albon delivered a strong qualifying performance and had originally been set to line up eighth on the grid, but he will now have to start from the pit lane as the specification of the car will need to be changed to become compliant with the regulations.
All other drivers will move up one position in the classification as a result.
Lewis Hamilton said his qualifying spiraled downhill after an early run-in with Sergio Perez until he was eliminated in Q2 at the Dutch Grand Prix. Mercedes looked competitive on Friday but a wet final practice session saw very little running due to …
Lewis Hamilton said his qualifying spiraled downhill after an early run-in with Sergio Perez until he was eliminated in Q2 at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Mercedes looked competitive on Friday but a wet final practice session saw very little running due to a heavy crash for Logan Sargeant that led to a long red flag. In Q1, Hamilton was then cited for impeding Perez in the middle sector — later earning a three-place grid penalty for the incident — and says his qualifying unravelled from there.
“It just went downhill like a domino effect from the moment with Checo,” Hamilton said. “Then the balance just got more and more snappy, more and more oversteery. It was terrible.
“I think we made changes overnight and we couldn’t see [what impact that had] in P3, but it’s the same for everybody. We changed the car quite a lot and it was a nightmare today.
“The car was massively snappy today. Yesterday was a lot of understeer and then we tried to dial that out and went more the other way.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]
Hamilton starts from 12th after ending Q2 nearly half a second adrift of the fastest time, and with Carlos Sainz starting one place ahead of him on a track that is relatively tough to overtake on, he believes points will be a challenge.
“[I expect] that it will be a struggle to get into the top 10,” he admitted. “It’s definitely very, very frustrating, naturally, but this is what it is. That’s kind of hard. It’s kind of the weekend and we have to move on to next week.”
With George Russell qualifying fourth but nearly 0.6s off pole position, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin says Mercedes underperformed as a team on Saturday.
“Our performance today was disappointing, and we had certainly hoped for more,” Shovlin said. “Both drivers looked more competitive at times in the session than the results showed. Lewis was strong in Q1 and George in Q2, but we failed to get it together when it mattered. The car hasn’t felt as good for either driver today. We were suffering from understeer yesterday but today we were struggling for rear grip.
“Our attention now turns to tomorrow’s race. Our long-run pace was reasonable yesterday and hopefully that will remain. If it does, we will be looking to move forwards with both drivers. The McLarens looked very strong on Friday so we may be looking at keeping George in the fight for the lower reaches of the podium, rather than victory. With Lewis, we will aim to recover well and score as many points as we can.”
This story has been updated following confirmation of Hamilton’s grid penalty. -Ed.
Lando Norris is confident in the work he has done on his starts ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, as he looks to improve a poor record of converting pole positions into a lead. The McLaren driver has started from pole position – or first in a Sprint – …
Lando Norris is confident in the work he has done on his starts ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, as he looks to improve a poor record of converting pole positions into a lead.
The McLaren driver has started from pole position — or first in a Sprint — on five occasions, but has never led the opening lap of the race. The latest example came in Budapest where Norris dropped to third at the start, and ahead of a race where he will start from pole position ahead of Max Verstappen, he admits he has been working on his getaways but doesn’t believe it is a particular weakness.
“I know my starts have not been my forté over the last [few chances],” Norris said. “They’ve not been bad, honestly. I’ve still been up there with being one of the best average starters, I’ve just missed out at a couple of races.
“It’s maybe looked worse than it’s been over the course of a season but there’s a couple of times it’s not been where they need to be — it’s been a couple of times when I’ve been on the front row. It’s not been for any certain reason; it’s been different things each time. But I feel confident I’ve put in a lot of work to make my starts a bit better and tomorrow’s a new day.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]
The fact that Norris has failed to convert pole position into a lead so far doesn’t play on the Briton’s mind, however, as he insists the previous starts don’t impact him once he’s on the grid.
“Honestly, stats to me don’t mean a lot. You kind of get respect with stats and you lose respect, maybe, with certain stats. Just numbers on a screen honestly don’t mean a lot from that perspective to me. Of course I care but they don’t mean a lot — they don’t impact me.
“It’s like the overtaking awards and stuff — you’re always going to overtake more when you qualify terribly and you’re going to have more chance to go forward. I’ve started towards the front a lot of times and I know my stats aren’t the best for that — more often than not I’ve gone backwards rather than holding positions, but that’s just what I’ve done so far and I’ve worked hard — and am working hard — to try and change that.
“It’s not something that affects me — I’m not going to try and go out tomorrow to suddenly prove people wrong or something. I’m just going to crack on and do what I’m going to do.
“People can write what they want; they can have their own opinions. A lot of these things are true and are facts to people but it’s more just use them to my advantage and improve on my weaknesses, simple as that.”
Lando Norris dominated qualifying in Zandvoort, breaking Dutch hearts by beating home favorite Max Verstappen to top spot by almost 0.4s. Norris took provisional pole with his first lap, but Verstappen struck back with his second run, moving to top …
Lando Norris dominated qualifying in Zandvoort, breaking Dutch hearts by beating home favorite Max Verstappen to top spot by almost 0.4s.
Norris took provisional pole with his first lap, but Verstappen struck back with his second run, moving to top spot by a slender 0.045s after setting only two of three personal best sectors.
Norris, however, wasn’t to be beaten. Stringing together purple sectors in the first and last splits, he lowered the benchmark to 1m09.673s, obliterating Verstappen by 0.356s for the fourth pole of his career and his third of the season.
“An amazing day,” he said. “It’s nice to be back and start with a pole.
“I’m excited for tomorrow. I’m sure it’s going to be tough. Max has been quick all weekend. I know we got him today, but he’s still second. He’s going to be putting up a good fight, especially at his home race, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Verstappen was satisfied with second after looking further off the pace during Friday practice, but he was noncommittal about the odds of him extending his unbeaten run at Zandvoort.
“I think the whole qualifying we just lacked a bit of pace,” he said. “I tried the best I could.
“I’m happy with second. I think after yesterday as well this was a good result. Of course when you’re more than 0.3s behind in qualifying, you have to be realistic. I’ll just try to have a good race tomorrow.”
Oscar Piastri looked like a pole contender in the second McLaren until the final runs, when a scrappy lap left him 0.499s slower than his session-topping teammate, qualifying third.
“I just didn’t do a good-enough job,” he said. “A little bit disappointing not to be a bit higher up, but we’ve still got a good race car underneath us and we can get some really good points and hopefully a trophy tomorrow.”
George Russell will start fourth for Mercedes ahead of Sergio Perez, 0.571s and 0.743s off the pace respectively.
Charles Leclerc will line up sixth ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and the superb Alex Albon, who took Williams to Q3 for just the fourth time this season and the first time since the British Grand Prix in July.
Lance Stroll qualified ninth ahead of Pierre Gasly, who earnt only the third top-10 qualifying appearance of the year.
Carlos Sainz will line up 11th after a difficult build-up to his weekend. The Spaniard lost almost all FP2, the only fully dry practice session of the weekend, to gearbox problems, meaning the first time he used the soft-compound tire was in Q1. He missed out on a spot in Q3 by 0.069s, but the Ferrari driver still managed to outqualify Lewis Hamilton, who will line up alongside him on the sixth row in 12th.
Hamilton failed to set personal best times in the first or third sectors on his final flying lap, though combining his best splits would have moved him up only one place to 11th. Compounding the Briton’s afternoon will be a post-session stewards investigation into an impeding incident ahead of Perez in Q1.
Yuki Tsunoda will start 13th for RB ahead of Haas teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.
Daniel Ricciardo will line up 16th, the Australian RB driver more than 0.11s short of a Q2 berth.
Esteban Ocon was knocked out 17th — “Car’s a disaster since the beginning of the weekend,” he radioed angrily to his pit wall — ahead of Sauber teammates Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
Logan Sargeant failed to take part in qualifying after his monster crash in FP3 earlier in the day, with the team running out of time after valiantly attempting to repair the car.
