Piastri turns tables on Norris to take Dutch GP pole

Oscar Piastri took an upset pole position over teammate Lando Norris in a thrilling conclusion to qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix.

Norris swept all three practice sessions and led Q2 in the build-up to the pole shootout, but Piastri saved his best for the first runs of Q3. The championship leader was almost flawless with his first lap on fresh softs, setting purple times in the first and third sectors.

An oversteer snap in the middle sector appeared to leave him vulnerable, however, and gave Norris an opening. The Briton crossed the line second, his deficit a tiny 0.012s.

Norris led the pair out for their second runs, and though he failed to improve in the first sector, he set a purple time in the middle split. Piastri, inversely, was fastest in the first sector but unable to better his teammate’s time in the middle of the lap.

It put Norris theoretically 0.02s up, setting up a grandstand finish. But he failed to improve in the final split, which left him slower overall.

Piastri also failed to improve, but his first lap was quick enough to seal the deal with a time of 1m08.662s. It’s the fastest lap ever completed at Circuit Zandvoort, eclipsing Max Verstappen’s 2021 record by 0.223s.

“That was the definition of peaking at the right time,” he said. “I think the whole weekend I felt pretty good, but there have been a couple of corners I haven’t been able to go any faster – and I didn’t really go any faster in those corners, but I found some more [time] elsewhere.

“Super happy to come out with a result. Obviously, we’ve still got all the points tomorrow. It was looking like a little bit of a tricky weekend, so to come out with that, I’m pretty stoked.”

It was Piastri’s first pole since the Spanish Grand Prix and perhaps his most valuable of the year – the pole-getter has won the Dutch Grand Prix every year since the race returned in 2021.

Norris was disappointed to miss out by such a fine margin, putting the difference down to circumstance.

“It’s been close the whole weekend, so it could easily go one way or the other,” he said. “With the wind like this, a lot of it is down to luck as well – even with all the luck I’ve been having. It’s tough. I had a good lap.

“I’m in a good position. We’re in a good fight. Oscar’s been driving well all weekend. We’ll have some fun tomorrow.”

McLaren was totally unchallenged for the front row, but Verstappen improved late with a fastest middle split to qualify third and best of the rest, the Dutchman lapping 0.263s slower than Piastri. It was a decent turnaround for Red Bull Racing, which looked lost for pace on Friday.

“This weekend so far has been quite tricky for us,” he said. “Qualifying is basically the best I’ve felt all weekend. That’s exactly what you want. To be P3 here, I’m very happy with that.

“The McLarens have been very fast all weekend … but this has been a good step forward. I hope that we can keep that up in the race tomorrow.”

Isack Hadjar was a superb fourth for Racing Bulls, the best qualifying result of his career. The French rookie was 0.546s off the pace, roughly as close to Verstappen as the Dutchman was to the front. His excellent lap relegated George Russell to fifth as the quickest Mercedes, the Briton 0.593s adrift.

Ferrari improved on its woeful Friday but was still well off the pace. Charles Leclerc ended 0.05s ahead of Lewis Hamilton, lapping 0.678s and 0.728s off pole respectively.

Liam Lawson will line up eighth for the third consecutive double Q3 appearance for Racing Bulls.

Carlos Sainz qualified ninth for Williams in his first top-10 qualification since May’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, beating Fernando Alonso to the place to complete the top 10.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli will line up 11th, his fourth Q3 miss in the last five grands prix. It was a close call for the Italian rookie, though, who was only 0.021s short of making it through to the top 10 and only 0.18s slower than teammate Russell, his smallest deficit of the season.

Yuki Tsunoda was knocked out 12th with an identical time to Gabriel Bortoleto in 13th, but the Red Bull Racing driver got the place for setting the time first. Tsunoda was exactly 0.5s slower than teammate Verstappen.

Pierre Gasly qualified 14th ahead of Alex Albon, who radioed his team in frustration that he had no tire grip for his final flying lap.

Franco Colapinto will line up 16th after being knocked out of Q1 by only 0.067s. The Argentine was 0.21s slower than Q2-bound teammate Gasly.

Nico Hulkenberg was 17th, his fourth Q1 knockout from the last five grands prix.

Haas teammates Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman were closely matched in 18th and 19th but never in contention for Q2. It was the team’s second double Q1 elimination of the season after Imola in May.

Lance Stroll failed to set a time after spinning off the road at Turn 13 on his first flying lap. The Canadian, whose mechanics worked until the early hours of Saturday morning repairing his car following a monster crash at Turn 3 on Friday, dipped his left wheels onto the grass on entry, which immediately tipped him into a spin that sent him careening towards the barriers.

His nosecone took the brunt of the damage, but though Stroll was able to rejoin the track and enter pit lane, the team couldn’t repair his car in time to send him back out before the end of Q1.

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