Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen took pole position at his home Grand Prix amid a sea of orange-sporting supporters, narrowly beating out Charles Leclerc by just two hundredths of a second in Zandvoort. 

Q1: Track Evolution and Shock Eliminations

A warm, sunny day in Zandvoort sets the scene for Qualifying, as the likes of Haas F1 Team, Williams Racing and Alfa Romeo Racing take to the track to put in some early laps. 

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team made an early impression, coming out on top of the timesheets before the frontrunning teams made their appearances, with Lance Stroll in first and Sebastian Vettel in second. They were followed by Guanyu Zhou, both Haas cars, Valterri Bottas, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly and Nicholas Latifi— rounding out the group of early runners. Yuki Tsunoda saw his first time get deleted. 

Verstappen made his first attempt and quickly shot to the top of the board, followed by the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo sit in fifth and sixth with ten minutes to go. Aston Martin and Haas both remain in the top ten, as well as Zhou. 

Lando Norris completed his first lap and rose to third place, splitting the Ferraris. Norris was noted for an unsafe release in the session’s first minutes, cutting off Tsunoda as he left the pits.  Mercedes AMG-Petronas F1 Team took second and third with their first laps, and the late-joining BWT Alpine F1 Team put in their first times soon after, with Fernando Alonso making a quick run for fourth. Alonso’s team-mate, Esteban Ocon, cracked the top ten with his first attempt as well. 

With four minutes to go, nearly all the drivers are in their garages preparing for their final laps, and the at-risk drivers are Vettel, Ricciardo, Albon, Mick Schumacher and Latifi. Albon has the track essentially all to himself as he makes another attempt, and lifts himself out of the elimination zone for seventh place. Both Haas drivers were taking their flying laps soon after, with Kevin Magnussen reaching twelfth and Schumacher taking eighth. 

With less than a minute to go, both McLarens are in danger, as well as Valtteri Bottas. Norris did, however, escape elimination by a huge margin, setting a time for third after the checkered flag was flown. Tsunoda made a shock lap for second right after, both of these impressive laps proving the importance of track evolution at this particular circuit. Being last out on track gives a considerable advantage, with more running culminating into a grippier line. 

Ultimately, Bottas was eliminated from sixteenth place, just one tenth behind team-mate Zhou, who made it through to the next round. Magnussen finished a disappointing seventeenth, unable to match Schumacher’s promising pace. Ricciardo was unable to scrape by in those final seconds, ending up knocked out in eighteenth place. Vettel found himself on the back row after running into some problems on his last lap, finishing in nineteenth alongside Latifi. 

Eliminated: Bottas, Magnussen, Ricciardo, Vettel, Latifi

Q2: Stroll, Schumacher advance as Alpines fall short

Albon was first and only car on the track when a red flag was flown for a flare that was tossed onto the track by a fan– this would happen again later in qualifying, causing a hindrance for those on flying laps. The flag continued to get some pigeons off of the side of the track, and then qualifying was underway once again. 

The Red Bulls were out on track first alongside Albon, as Verstappen went one followed by Perez in second, fourth tenths behind. Hamilton split the Red Bulls with his first lap, as Russell took fourth. Norris grabbed fifth place soon after, while the rest of the grid put in their first attempts. 

The Ferraris were only able to reach sixth and seventh with their initial runs, unable to crack the times of Norris or Russell. Stroll put in a great time to go fourth, his Aston Martin showing great potential in Zandvoort. Alonso joined the top ten with an eighth place run, while Ocon remained down in the drop zone as the teams returned to the pits.

With just under six minutes to go, Gasly, Ocon, Zhou, Tsunoda and Schumacher were at risk of elimination. Albon was once again first out, and remained in tenth after what would be his final attempt. Verstappen didn’t join the mass of cars going out for their final lap, showing confidence in the solid time he had already set. 

Sainz would take first and Russell second, demoting Verstappen down to third. Albon was sent back to the drop zone, knocked out by Zhou who took tenth with his final lap. Schumacher escaped elimination, setting a time for eighth place, with Ocon setting a time for tenth soon after to demote his team-mate into the elimination zone. Tsunoda made a late run for tenth, as Gasly and Alonso were unable to improve. Alonso complained of traffic in his last lap, with Perez going slowly around turn eight. 

It was a surprising elimination for Alpine, who were immensely competitive just last week in Spa. This left room for the likes of Schumacher and Stroll to make an unlikely appearance in Q3, as well as Tsunoda. 

Eliminated: Gasly, Ocon, Alonso, Zhou, Albon

Q3: Verstappen, Leclerc vie for pole as Perez crash ends session

Verstappen and Perez set the pace with the first times of the final qualifying session, with Verstappen in first and Perez behind. There is already more potential to be found for Verstappen, who took a little too much curb on the banked turn three. Norris slotted into third soon after. 

Leclerc’s first attempt saw him take provisional pole with over six minutes to go, as the top ten all made their initial laps. Hamilton split the Red Bulls to take third, as Sainz later took fourth on his first go. Russell sat in sixth, Norris seventh, followed by Tsunoda and Schumacher. Stroll would not take to the track in what would have been his first Q3 appearance since Miami due to a technical issue. 

Just one tenth apart after their first laps, it appeared that the fight was on between Verstappen and Leclerc for the top spot. The margins were narrow across the board, and it would be a tight battle to the checkered flag for all the drivers.

First to take his final lap, Leclerc was purple in the first sector, but couldn’t improve in the second. A third purple sector, however, allowed Leclerc to improve upon his leading time. Verstappen was on a flyer just behind, green in the first sector and purple in the second– and finally crossed the line to take pole. Verstappen set a time of 1:10.342, only a touch ahead of Leclerc’s 1:10.363.

Sainz set a time for third as the fans applauded Verstappen’s pole effort, but the attention was quickly drawn to Perez, who had spun on the final turn and brought out a yellow flag. Both Mercedes drivers behind were unable to finish their laps, among others. The top ten was set after the dramatic end to the session. 

Verstappen took his second consecutive pole at his home event, joined by Leclerc on the front row. Sainz and Hamilton follow in third and fourth. Perez solidified his position in fifth after his crash, and will line up alongside Russell in Sixth. Norris and Schumacher make up the next row in seventh and eighth, with Tsunoda and Stroll rounding out the top ten. 

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:11.317	1:10.927	1:10.342	12
2	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:11.443	1:10.988	1:10.363	18
3	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:11.767	1:10.814	1:10.434	18
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:11.331	1:11.075	1:10.648	18
5	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:11.641	1:11.314	1:11.077	19
6	63	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:11.561	1:10.824	1:11.147	18
7	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:11.556	1:11.116	1:11.174	18
8	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Haas F1 Team	1:11.741	1:11.420	1:11.442	21
9	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:11.427	1:11.428	1:12.556	21
10	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:11.568	1:11.416		14
11	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:11.705	1:11.512		15
12	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:11.748	1:11.605		12
13	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:11.667	1:11.613		11
14	24	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:11.826	1:11.704		15
15	23	Alex Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1:11.695	1:11.802		16
16	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:11.961			9
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1:12.081			8
18	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:12.319			9
19	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:12.391			8
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:13.353			5

Credit: Peter Fox / Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool