ZANDVOORT, The Netherlands — Oscar Piastri sealed pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix, defeating McLaren teammate Lando Norris in a thrilling battle during the closing moments of qualifying at Circuit Zandvoort.
While Norris had led the way during all three practice sessions throughout the weekend, Piastri laid down a gauntlet by going quickest in Q1. Norris then set the pace in Q2, culminating in a close scrap in Q3 that saw Piastri grab provisional pole with his effort of 1 minute and 8.662 seconds.
He was a mere .012 seconds quicker than Norris.
“I think the whole weekend I’ve felt pretty good, but there’s just been a couple corners that I’ve not been able to go any faster, and I didn’t really go any faster in those corners, but I found some more [pace] elsewhere,” Piastri explained. “I’m super happy to come away with the result. Obviously [we have] still got all the points [to score] tomorrow, but it was looking like a little bit of a tricky weekend so far, so to come away with that… I’m pretty stoked.”
Max Verstappen, meanwhile, gave his home crowd something to cheer about by slotting his Red Bull into third.
Isack Hadjar claimed an impressive career-best result of fourth in the Racing Bulls machine, while George Russell was fifth for Mercedes.
The Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton will start sixth and seventh, respectively.
