Lando Norris clinched pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix after pipping Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri to the top spot at a windy Zandvoort Circuit. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, could only manage a P12 grid slot.
The frontrunners picked up where they left off before the summer break. After the first runs in Q1, Hamilton, Norris and Verstappen were split by less than two-hundredths of a second at the top of the timing screens.
The likes of Sergio Perez, George Russell and Carlos Sainz all climbed to the top with the aid of track evolution on their final runs. It was also a familiar tale at the bottom. Both Sauber drivers were eliminated along with Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, while Logan Sargeant didn’t set a time after his heavy shunt during FP3.
There were bigger scalps in Q2. Russell had the pace to challenge the two McLaren drivers on his first run, but his team-mate struggled significantly. Hamilton couldn’t improve enough on his final attempt, crossing the line in P11 before being relegated to P12.
He was joined in the elimination zone by another big hitter as Sainz was bumped out of the top 10 by team-mate Charles Leclerc. Also in the bottom five were the Haas duo of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, while Yuki Tsunoda also couldn’t improve.
Norris punched in the time to beat in Q3, going just over a tenth of a second faster than his team-mate with Verstappen in third.
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