Norris beats Verstappen in nail-biting Zandvoort qualifying

F1 Grand Prix, GP Netherlands, Circuit Park Zandvoort

Lando Norris secured a dominant pole position in a nail-biting qualifying session at the Dutch Grand Prix. F1Technical’s lead journalist Balazs Szabo reports from the Zandvoort circuit.

Although Williams had hoped that they would be able to repair Logan Sargeant’s car for qualifying, their mechanics could not finish the repair job for the start of qualifying. The American driver suffered a high-speed crash in final practice, losing the rear end of his FW46 after going onto the wet grass at Turn 3.

The stewards noted a potential impeding incident between Hamilton and Perez, with the Red Bull driver having to lift after encountering the slow-moving Mercedes.

The Mexican was the star of the opening qualifying session. Having found himself in the danger zone in the closing stages of Q1, Perez delivered a stunning final push lap to end the session atop.

The middle session of qualifying saw a very close fight forming up with the tiniest margins separating the remaining 15 drivers.

While Norris, Russell, Verstappen and Piastri looked safe in the final stages of qualifying, the rest of the field was forced to head out for a last push lap on the red-walled softs.

The biggest shock belonged to seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who had a fairly clean lap, but he ended up down in P12, thus failing to make the cut into Q3. It was a hugely disappointing result after the Briton looked strong on Friday, finishing the first two practice sessions in third place.

Carlos Sainz was also knocked out, and will line up in P11 on the grid tomorrow. It was not fully unexpected as the Spaniard spent the only dry practice of the weekend in the garage with a gearbox issue, meaning that he was unable to fine-tune his car on a track where it is vital for the drivers to rack up mileage.

The last part of the qualifying session saw the McLaren drivers and Verstappen emerge as favourite for the top three places. With a brilliant lastlap, Norris secured the pole position, beating the home hero by over three tenths of a second.

Piastri was unable to challenge his team-mate in the dying stages of qualifying, and had to settle for third place, with Russell ending up fourth.

Perez delivered a great performance to beat Leclerc, with the pair set to line up in the third row of the grid.

Fernando Alonso took seventh, from Williams driver Alexander Albon in P8, with Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly rounding out the top ten.