Oscar Piastri took the pole position to attack his teammate Rand Norris with a thrilling conclusion to compete in the Dutch Grand Prix.
Norris took all three practice sessions by storm and led the second quarter in pole shootout buildups, but Piastri did his best on the first run of the third quarter. The championship leader was almost perfect on the first lap in fresh soft, setting purple time in the first and third sectors.
However, oversteered snaps in the middle division seemed to make him vulnerable and gave Norris the opening. Britton crosses the line second, with his deficit at a small 0.012.
Norris led the pair on his second run, failing to improve in the first sector, but set a purple time on the middle split. Piastri, on the other hand, was the fastest in the first sector, but could not improve his teammates’ time on laps.
Norris theoretically raised 0.02s and set the finish of the grandstand. However, he failed to improve in the final split, and overall delayed him.
Piastri couldn’t improve either, but his first lap was fast enough to seal the deal at 1M08.662 hours. This is the fastest lap ever completed on the Circuit Zandov route, capturing Max Barstappen’s 2021 record in 0.223 seconds.
“That was the definition of peaking at the right time,” he said. “I think I felt pretty good on the weekend, but there were some corners that I couldn’t go faster, and I didn’t go really fast in those corners, but there were more (times) elsewhere.
“I’m so happy with the results. Obviously tomorrow still has all the points. It looked like a bit of a tricky weekend, so I’m pretty excited to put it out.”
The first pole in Piastri since the Spanish Grand Prix, and perhaps his most valuable year, Paul Getter has been winning the Dutch Grand Prix every year since the race returned in 2021.
Norris was disappointed by missing such a great margin and kept the difference in situations.
“The weekend was over, so it’s easy to go in some way,” he said. “There’s a wind like this, so a lot of it has been lucky. Even with all the luck I have. It’s tough. I had a good rap.
“I’m in a good position. We’re in a good fight. Oscar drives well all weekend. There’s something fun tomorrow.”
McLaren was not challenged at all in the front row, but Verstappen improved behind on the fastest middle split, and to qualify for the third and best of the rest, Dutchman rapped 0.263 over Piastri. It was a decent turnaround for the Red Bull race, which appeared to have got lost at the pace on Friday.
“The weekends so far have been very careful for us,” he said. “Qualifying is basically the best I’ve felt throughout the weekend. That’s exactly what you want. I’m very pleased with it to be P3 here.
“McLaren has been getting really fast all weekend, but this has been a good progression and I hope we can keep it up tomorrow in the race.”
Isack Hadjar was a great fourth and fourth for the Racing Bulls. The French rookie was 0.546 seconds from the pace, and was as close to Verstappen as the Dutchman was in front of him. His excellent rap put George Russell in fifth place as the fastest Mercedes and Briton 0.593S ad-lift.
Ferrari improved that disastrous Friday, but it still didn’t take the pace. Charles Leclerc finished 0.05 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton, wrapping 0.678 and 0.728 seconds from the pole, respectively.
Liam Lawson will be in eighth place in the Race Bulls’ third consecutive double Q3 appearance.
Carlos Signe took Williams’ ninth place in his first top 10 qualification since the Emilia Romana Grand Prix in May, hitting Fernando Alonso where he completed the top 10.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli will place 11th in the fourth quarter mistake in the final five Grands Prix. But that was a close call for the Italian rookie, but he’s only 0.021 seconds into the top 10 and just 0.18 seconds slower than his smallest deficit of the season, teammate Russell.
Tsunoda was knocked out to 12th on the 13th at the same time as Gabriel Boltreto, but the Red Bull Racing driver got the place to set the first time. Tsunoda was 0.5 seconds slower than his teammate Verstappen.
Pierre Guthrie placed 14th ahead of Alex Albon. Alex Albon radioed his team with frustration that he had no tire grip on his final flying lap.
Franco Colapinto will be in 16th place after being knocked out just 0.067 seconds from Q1. Argentina was 0.21 seconds slower than his Q2-bound teammate Guthrie.
Nico Furkenberg was 17th and was the fourth quarter knockout of the final five Grands Prix.
Haas teammates Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman coincided closely on the 18th and 19th, but were never contested in the second quarter. It was the second quarter removal of the second quarter of the post-Imola season in May.
Lance’s walk failed to set the time after spinning off the road at turn 13 on the first flying lap. The Canadian, who worked until early Saturday morning after a monster crash crash on Turn 3 on Friday, worked until repairing the car until early on Saturday morning, dipped his left wheel on the grass at the entrance and quickly carped him towards the barrier, flipping him over to the spin.
His Nosecone was borne by the damage, but the walk was able to rejoin the track and enter Pit Lane, but the team was unable to repair his car to send him back by the end of Q1.
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