Intractable since the start of the season, Max Verstappen has not given the competition the slightest gift for his weekend at home. The Red Bull driver, who is already crushing the Championship with the Austrian team, signed his eighth pole position of the season this Saturday, on the Zandvoort circuit, his 28th in his career.
The double world champion waited until the last minutes of the session to get out of the woods and the drying up of the track helped him find an unbeatable mount on a regular basis. Since the return of the Dutch GP in 2021, he is the only driver on the grid to have taken pole position on this track and it is for the third time in a row that he will start from first place on Sunday. .
Verstappen is ahead of Lando Norris, who has been very successful with his McLaren since the start of this Dutch weekend, but who was still pushed back more than half a second on the time sheet. George Russell (Mercedes) set the third fastest time, just ahead of the surprising Alex Albon (Williams), fourth and swift throughout this qualifying session, who even set the fastest time in Q2. If Russell can be satisfied with his performance, there is no doubt that on the other side of the Mercedes garage we must be gray. Lewis Hamilton could not go further than in Q2 and will start from 13th place this Sunday.
Sargeant and Leclerc in the wall
The last part of qualifying was interrupted twice, due to red flags displayed after the accidents of Logan Sargeant and Charles Leclerc. The American driver from the Williams team would probably have preferred to celebrate his very first participation in Q3 in a different way, but he finally ended his session in the wall, after slipping at the exit of turn 2, while the track was still wet in places. His car was destroyed but Sargeant was able to get out without damage.
A few minutes later, Charles Leclerc also made a mistake. The Ferrari driver, who had not gone far from elimination in Q1 and who had scolded his engineers on the radio, visibly unhappy with the strategy put in place by his team, understeered in turn 9 and that did not forgive. The Monegasque went off and crashed his single-seater into the wall, thus damaging the entire front left axle. Leclerc will start 9th on Sunday, having already made changes to his gearbox.
No miracle for Alpine and Lawson
The disappointment is in order at Alpine, which has made no changes to its car for this weekend. Esteban Ocon got knocked out in Q3 and couldn’t do better than 17th fastest. The Norman driver complained about the lack of speed of his single-seater in fast corners. It’s a little better for his teammate Pierre Gasly, who managed to reach Q2, and who fails only six hundredths of Q3.
Newcomer Liam Lawson, replacing Daniel Ricciardo at short notice, injured, gave his best for his first qualifying session in the premier discipline of motorsport. He took possession of the Alpha Tauri only this Saturday morning, for the free practice session and finished last in qualifying, 1”2 behind Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo Racing), 19th.