Zandvoort suddenly fell silent after the roar that erupted following Max Verstappen’s time: the Dutchman with a sensational 1’10″029 seemed to have carved out his fourth pole position start at Zandvoort, but the three-time world champion, author of a masterly central part of the lap, had to surrender to the superiority of Lando Norris and McLaren.
The Englishman stunned Verstappen’s fans with a monstrous performance: Lando was the only one to break the 1’10” barrier, reaching 1’09″673, a performance that is almost a second faster than last year’s pole position. Norris closed a perfect lap in which he was able to exploit the potential of the MCL38, unquestionably the most competitive single-seater of the moment.
The 356 thousandths gap that Lando gave Verstappen says a lot about the quality of this fourth pole position start for the Englishman, the third this season. Norris wisely decided not to celebrate the pole position he secured in bright sunshine after free practice sessions hit by rain and wind. Norris must erase the nightmare of not being able to win by starting ahead of everyone: the start is the Achilles heel and at the start he will have to find the mental strength to eliminate a handicap that is becoming heavy…
The gusts of wind also affected the qualifying but the papaya car seemed not to feel them. Max, with a Red Bull that is no longer invincible, gave another demonstration of his talent: the three-time world champion could do nothing but slip between the two McLarens and the Dutchman gave the Milton Keynes team an unexpected front row.
Verstappen, therefore, becomes a thorn in the side of McLaren and, despite having a less competitive car than the MCL38, he can be a protagonist in front of his fans on a track where overtaking will be difficult. Max will try to attack at the start, trying to stick his finger in Lando’s wound. The one who messed up the qualification was Oscar Piastri: the Australian must settle for third place. More than the position on the grid, the gap of half a second from his teammate is worrying. Piastri compromises his race for a qualification in which he has not yet shown his best, while tomorrow in the race he will certainly be an absolute protagonist to keep an eye on.
Mercedes is surprisingly far away: George Russell is fourth at 571 thousandths, while in free practice he seemed able to challenge the McLarens. If the Englishman clung to the second row, Lewis Hamilton sank out of Q3: inexplicable! The Star went out at the most beautiful moment.
Sergio Perez is fifth with the second Red Bull: the Mexican has done his best at a time when he is under a lot of pressure. Checo gives up four tenths to Verstappen, a margin that is smaller than what we have become accustomed to in recent GPs. He must score important points if he does not want to be called into question at every race…
Ferrari is lost: Charles Leclerc with an almost perfect lap is only sixth. The Monegasque, on a very short track, gives up nine tenths to Norris: an eternity given that the red is hunted by Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin. The SF-24 arrived in Zandvoort without promised updates and the Scuderia pays for the lack of technical innovations on a track that does not suit the red. Carlos Sainz pays heavily for the failure of the gearbox in yesterday’s free practice that prevented him from gaining confidence in Zandvoort with the slicks: the Spaniard is only 11th with the Ferrari. The Madrid native was unable to find the feeling with the red and played defense with an SF-24 that does not seem competitive on the banked corners.
Alexander Albon performed well, eighth, slipping between the two “greens” with Williams enjoying an excellent technical upgrade. The Anglo-Thai driver capitalized on the leap in quality, something Logan Sargeant failed to do, as he didn’t even qualify.
Fernando Alonso regained his pride as soon as the AMR24 seemed to have found its way back to development: two Aston Martins in Q3 are a positive sign. The Asturian improved his Q2 time by two tenths, while Lance Stroll worsened his performance. The difference between the two, with equal performance, is all there. And it’s not a small thing.
Among the heroes of the day is Pierre Gasly: the Frenchman puts Alpine in tenth position by performing a miracle, because the Enstone car is certainly not among the most competitive. Pierre, strong of the contract renewal, drives with ease and feels the support of the team in a moment of total restructuring of the team.
The sensational fact of the qualification is given by the exclusion from Q3 of Lewis Hamilton: the winner of Spa-Francorchamps in the following race failed to enter the Top 10 despite having a black-silver arrow that seems very fit. The seven-time world champion was shocked by a terrible result that he did not expect.
Behind the W15 in 13th position is Yuki Tsunoda who has made the most of his Racing Bulls: the Japanese is the reference man of the Faenza team. He has limited the excesses and is able to guarantee a positive regularity of performance.
Haas also showed their best with Nico Hulkenberg 14th followed by teammate Kevin Magnussen: the two were separated by 80 thousandths, a sign that they had scraped the car’s barrel.
Daniel Ricciardo fails to make it through Q1 with the Racing Bulls and has to settle for 16th place, which keeps him in the second part of the group ahead of Esteban Ocon, who is in serious trouble with the Alpine. The Frenchman is very critical of the behavior of the A524, being the driver leaving the Enstone team, and freely says what he thinks about a car that should have been improving.
The two Saubers condemned to the back of the grid did badly: Valtteri Bottas’ only satisfaction was to get back in front of Guanyu Zhou, but the Chinese driver paid a second to his teammate, a sign that his C44 had some problems at the decisive moment.
Last place for Logan Largeant: the American did not run after demolishing the Williams during FP3. The crash was violent and the W46 was also on fire, so it should not be surprising that Grove’s mechanics were unable to rebuild the car. The American will start tomorrow despite not having a time…
#Norris #pole #Verstappens #home #Leclerc #sixth
