Norris beats Russell to pole position at Zandvoort

McLaren's Lando Norris secured pole position at the Dutch Grand Prix, edging Mercedes' George Russell by 0.102 seconds as rain began to spot the track. The pair completed their runs earlier than usual because of the weather. Russell's teammate Kimi Antonelli was the first to improve on his final lap, briefly moving to the top of the timesheets. Norris, however, overtook him to claim the lead, having already taken the top spot on the opening laps of the final session before Russell finally cleared him. Antonelli, the championship leader, finished 0.031 seconds behind Russell and 0.009 seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri’s second McLaren. Although heavy rain was forecast, it never arrived in significant amounts. Lewis Hamilton, who delayed his final lap, used the improving track conditions to slip past teammate Charles Leclerc, locking the Ferraris into the fifth and sixth positions on the grid. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will start his final home Grand Prix from seventh, with the Dutch round set to disappear from the calendar after this season. Liam Lawson, standing in for the injured Isack Hadjar, impressed by lapping just 0.0115 seconds slower than Verstappen to take eighth place ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto’s Audi and Arvid Lindblad’s Racing Bulls. Anticipation of rain prompted teams to finish their two qualifying runs as quickly as possible. Russell showed the urgency by moving ahead of Piastri as they exited the pits, then attacked Norris on his out‑lap in an attempt to gain track position. Norris held him off, forcing Russell to back off before beginning his own lap. In the end the rain that fell was only light and insufficient to affect the session. Norris commented that, if anything, the moisture may have helped lap times by cooling the tyres slightly. "It wasn't a thigh that felt mega," the satellite champion said. "It was 1 wherever I committed a batch much due to the fact that I knew however adjacent it would be, and I astir made much mistakes." "But I seemed to summation much than I seemed to suffer astatine times. It was a thigh wherever I conscionable felt I had thing to suffer and it conscionable paid off." Russell said a mistake successful Turn Eight connected his last tally had outgo him arsenic the tyres got excessively blistery and helium was incapable to support improving. Antonelli, too, was left to rue a mistake on his last run, saying he lost 0.2 seconds in Turn One taking things too casual because of the rain – he missed out on pole by 0.133 seconds. Hamilton benefited by leaving his lap late and gaining from the usual improvement in track conditions during qualifying to pip Leclerc by 0.064 seconds. Yuki Tsunoda, back on the grid to replace Lawson at Racing Bulls, finished 12th. Aston Martin believed its upgraded Honda engine had delivered as expected, but Fernando Alonso could not hold onto the twelfth place he carried into the final runs of the opening session. Describing his out‑lap as a "mess," he failed to improve his time and dropped to eighteenth, a disappointment given the circumstances.