Norris beats Verstappen to Dutch GP pole position
Lando Norris became the first person to beat Max Verstappen to pole position at the Dutch Grand Prix with a stunning lap in his McLaren.
Verstappen has monopolised this race since it returned to the calendar in 2021 after a 36-year gap but Norris beat him by 0.356 seconds.
Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri was third, 0.499secs slower than the Briton, with Mercedes’ George Russell fourth.
Lewis Hamilton will start 14th – he was knocked out in the second session after a mistake at the penultimate corner on his final lap, then received a grid penalty.
The seven-time champion faced a stewards’ investigation into whether he impeded Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and was given a three-place penalty, dropping him down from 12th to 15th.
But he then moved back up a place as Alex Albon – eighth fastest in the upgraded Williams – was disqualified from qualifying as the floor on his car was found to be “outside the regulatory volume”.
The decision came after an upgrade on the car, including the floor, for this weekend, and means Albon will start the race from the back.
Norris, on a strong run of form but still seeking a second win to add to his maiden victory in Miami back in May, said: “An amazing day, nice to be back and start with a pole.
“It was a nice lap. The qualifying was always pretty smooth and put in some good laps especially the one at the end.
“I felt comfortable. The car was feeling amazing. We have some upgrades on the car for the first time in a while and everything is working well.”
Verstappen, who has never been beaten in a grand prix at Zandvoort but has not won since the Spanish Grand Prix six races ago, said: “The whole qualifying [session, we] just lacked a bit of pace. I’m still very happy to be on the front row.
“We have these gusts of wind coming in, every lap is different, so you can’t build.
“But after yesterday this is a good result. Hopefully the car will be OK in the race. We will give it a good go but when you are more than 0.3secs behind in qualifying you have to be realistic.”
Piastri said: “Just didn’t do a good enough job with the lap. The second lap wasn’t quite what I needed. The car has been very quick this weekend so a bit disappointed.”
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was fifth, 0.387secs slower than team-mate Verstappen after some driver-coaching at Silverstone this week as part of Red Bull’s attempts to improve his form.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took sixth ahead of an impressive showing from Fernando Alonso in seventh in the Aston Martin.
A step forward from McLaren
Norris had looked the favourite for pole ever since making a strong impression in Friday practice and he delivered in style.
The McLaren has not been upgraded since the Miami developments that turned it in a front-runner overnight after starting the season behind Red Bull and Ferrari.
This upgrade introduced for the start of the second part of the season is not as big as the Miami one but Piastri said it was “doing what we expected” and it enabled Norris to dominate on a track that so far Verstappen has effectively owned.
Norris came into the weekend admitting he had not been driving at the level of a world champion so far this season and had been making too many mistakes.
And he will be determined to notch up a second win to back up his claim that he still has a chance of closing the 78-point lead Verstappen has in the championship.
Credit: BBC