Piastri fastest when it matters, securing pole for the Dutch Grand Prix
Lando Norris was the favourite to take pole today after dominating the free practice sessions but his McLaren teammate Piastri found just a little bit extra to secure the best starting position for the race. Home hero Verstappen is set to start from third place.
It"s the first qualifying in 4 weeks time and the Alpines were eager to get going, taking to the track early and setting early laps that would however prove not so great. Bearman was the only one who proved somewhat slower in the early stages. At least they completed clean laps, something Lance Stroll wasn't able to do on his first attempt as he lost the rear before Turn 13 and ended up in the barriers. The Canadian could get going again and returned to the pits, requiring a new nose cone and lots of car checks.
The incident did not hamper qualifying a with the Ferraris soon emerging near the top of the timesheet, behind Verstappen while the McLaren duo were still on their warmup laps.
Halfway into the session Norris took over at the top of the timing sheet, 2 tenths ahead of Piastri. Alonso followed up on that with a 4th best time, two tenths down on Verstappen. Both Mercedes had set their times just before the McLarens, good for 5th and 6th, right behind Alonso as Stroll was still stuck in the garage with 7 minutes remaining on the clock.
When Piastri was back on track for another lap, despite really not needing one, Stroll was out of the car, marking his elimination from qualifying and certifying a 20th slot on tomorrow's starting grid.
The times set in the earlier minutes meant Hamilton, Bearman, Sainz, Leclerc and Albon were definitely in danger of being eliminated while Bortoleto, Tsunoda, Colapinto and Ocon very much needed to improve out of the elimination zone.
Hamilton and Leclerc easily made it through, beating Alonso's earlier time. Lawson was even faster and Tsunoda also managed to avoid elimination, resulting in P15 for Colapinto, followed by Hulkenberg, Ocon, Bearman and of course Stroll.
The second part of qualifying kicked off with the Ferrari duo enjoying a clear track for their early flying laps while others were starting to come out and get stuck in the queue to get out of the pitlane.
George Russell was the first driver to follow the Ferrari drivers with Verstappen 10 seconds behind him. Russell beat the Ferraris while Verstappen did another half a second better.
As both Ferraris has meanwhile pitted and returned to the track with fresh tyres, Norris started his flying lap. Norris was up first and again moved up to the top of the timing sheet. Piastri was less than a tenth off of Norris' best while Alonso underwhelmed and was tenths down, right into the elimination zone.
2:30 from the end, Russell started his second flying lap while sitting in 9th position. He improved to 6th while Antonelli behind him made it into 7th. Gasly was up next, passing the finish line to move up to 10th, only to get eliminated when Sainz improved to 7th, right in between the Mercedes duo.
Bortoleto improved but ended up in 11th, 0.000 behind Tsunoda. Turns out Bortoleto actually had to pass Tsunoda on his hot lap and clearly blamed the Japanese for impeding him.
Finally it was Alonso, the last one to complete a lap in Q2, jumping into Q3 with a solid improved to 7th, behind the McLarens, Verstappen, the Ferrari drivers and Russell.
In Q3, Piastri was out first with Norris behind him. Piastri was the fastest of the two in the first sector, Norris faster in the second with in the end Piastri, really for the first time this weekend ahead of him team mate.
Russell got third ahead of Leclerc with Hamilton later slotting in between those two. Hadjar sat in 6th ahead of Alonso, Sainz and Lawson while Verstappen was still on track to complete his first lap. The home hero once again got third, three tenths down on Piastri.
The second attempt saw Norris unable to improve, sticking him to second place, 0.012s away from pole sitter Oscar Piastri. Russell had a terrible second sector and Verstappen lost considerable time in the first part of his lap, leaving them 5th and 3rd respectively as Hadjar snuck in between those two.
Alonso was unable to improve and dropped down to 10th, probably somewhat disappointing given the performance displayed on Friday. For Hadjar it's another highlight as 4th is his best qualifying result of his F1 career so far.
