McLaren had been expected to dominate at Zandvoort, and Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris did not disappoint by having secured a McLaren one-two for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix. F1Technical’s senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers drivers’ reaction after the qualifying day at the Zandvoort circuit.

McLaren

“I’m pleased to be starting on the front row, but I’m a little disappointed to not be on Pole. It was close – it’s been close the whole weekend and I had decent laps, so it’s not the end of the world. We’re in a good position to fight, it’s a long race with a lot of laps, and we’ll see what the weather holds. We’ll have some fun tomorrow.”

"I'm really pleased with that. The car has felt good all weekend, so I am super happy to come away with it. I’ve been chipping away steadily all weekend and managed to put it all together for my final lap, so I’m stoked to be on Pole. There are a few variables in play for the race, so let’s see what happens. I'm looking forward to it."

Red Bull

"I am happy with our performance today and things all came together for Qualifying. This weekend we have been struggling a bit with the balance but today felt a lot more normal after making some final adjustments just ahead of Qualifying.

"This really brought the balance together for us, which was a big positive and this made it more fun to push the car to the limit around this track. The wind also made things a bit trickier but this was the same for everyone. Our fight will be to keep the others behind and hopefully we have enough pace for P3. We will need a bit of luck to win here but I want to target a podium tomorrow."

"I believed that I did my best today to be honest. I was happy with the lap, it felt clean and there weren't any mistakes from my end so it was strange that we didn't extract the peak performance to get into Q3. The car was good and the pace was there, the result didn't match the way I felt during the session.

"I'm disappointed and frustrated in the result today, but I shall keep digging to find performance tomorrow. I qualified close to the points, so there is potential to score and that's what we'll aim to do as I felt confident in the car, so we'll see what tomorrow brings where anything can happen."

Racing Bulls

"I am super happy, this is an outstanding result for the Team. We didn’t expect to reach Q3, as our performance yesterday wasn’t amazing, but we managed to deliver a really strong lap when it mattered. Liam was pushing me hard, the car felt great, and we kept making the right improvements with each run.

"I feel confident for tomorrow, the car is working well, so there’s no reason why our race pace shouldn’t be strong. The race should be straightforward, I’ve got a good view into Turn 1, and the goal is to maintain position and score good points.”

“It's good to be in Q3 but, of course, the ambition is always to be starting further up. Our speed was very promising throughout Qualifying and unfortunately we went slower in Q3, so there will be some things to look into. The tyres are very sensitive here in Zandvoort and getting the balance right with the wind is tough.

"The track is very physical and it will be important to have a strong start tomorrow given how tricky it is to overtake. The car has great potential and overall it's a positive Qualifying for the team."

Mercedes

"I am a bit disappointed with P5 today. That said, the field has been really tight since the beginning of the weekend, and we couldn’t take anything for granted. We didn’t put the lap together at the end of Q3 and, whilst we could have fought for the second row, it is where we deserved to be. Isack (Hadjar) did an amazing job to get ahead of us so congratulations to him.

"We will see what we can do tomorrow. Our long run pace felt good in FP3, and I am therefore hopeful that we can be in the fight for the podium, irrespective of our starting position. We know that our battle remains with the Ferraris and the Red Bull of Max (Verstappen) given the Constructors’ standings. Hopefully we can have a good Sunday and add some solid points."

"I am disappointed after today's Qualifying. I missed out on Q3 by a small margin; on my final lap in Q2 I made a small mistake into the chicane and that proved the difference between getting through and being eliminated. We knew that we would have to execute well given how tight the field was; little mistakes would make a huge difference and so it proved.

"Losing track time in FP1 did not help with that as it cost me some learning that I could not use in Qualifying. I need to make sure I cut out these errors.

"On the positive side, I was feeling good in the car in both FP2 and FP3. That bodes well for tomorrow’s race. We did some long run work in FP3 and that was competitive, so I am looking forward to the Grand Prix. It is a difficult circuit to overtake at and starting from P11 will not make it easy. However, I will reset tonight and be ready to give it my all tomorrow."

Ferrari

"It’s been a difficult weekend overall, which makes it tough to build up to the race in the way we want to. The balance of the car makes it tricky to drive and I didn’t put it all together in qualifying. It’s just that kind of weekend for us, but we may be able to play with strategy tomorrow. We’ll do everything we can to fight our way forward and bring home a good result for the team."

"Today was a challenging one in terms of getting the car fully into the right performance window. We showed promising pace on the medium tyre in FP3, but weren’t able to fully translate that into qualifying, and there’s still work to do compared to the teams ahead.

"That said, after the summer break our priority was to keep building, and today was an encouraging step forward. This circuit is always difficult when it comes to overtaking, so if the weather does bring some mixed conditions tomorrow, hopefully it will create opportunities and make the race exciting for the fans."

Williams

"It’s been a frustrating afternoon. We’ve been quick all weekend and strong in Qualifying, but on our second lap in Q2 we just didn’t have the tyres. The operating window is so small, and after queuing for several minutes in the pitlane our out lap was compromised. Obviously, it wasn’t intentional, but for us every detail has to be perfect, and the out lap is crucial.

"I was confident we could comfortably make the top ten, but we were out of the window. The margins between Q2 and Q3 are so tight now that you can’t afford mistakes or a poor out lap.

"Tomorrow will be tough as this track can be a bit of a train, but let’s see what the weather brings and what we can do."

"Once the track temperatures went up, we lost performance from FP3 to Qualifying and I felt it straight away. We needed very solid laps to progress through the session and, whilst it’s slightly disappointing to not be higher up the order, we maximised what we could and P9 is a decent position to fight tomorrow. We’ll keep an eye on the weather and give our best during the race."

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso, 10th, 1:09.630

"We aim to be in Q3 every weekend and so we're pleased we've achieved that today, but we seemed to be lacking some pace compared to yesterday.

"There were some tricky wind conditions out there and it was easy to be caught out. It's difficult to overtake here, so we'll see what we can do from P10 and hopefully fight for some points."

"Unfortunately, there was no chance to bring the car back out and run again because there was too much damage. It's a shame after the hard work the team has put in overnight to get the car back running ahead of FP3.

"And the car has felt comfortable so far this weekend with the package looking pretty strong. We will see what we can do from the back of the grid tomorrow."

Kick Sauber

“It was incredibly close out there – just eight tenths covering the top 18 – so missing out by a tenth is frustrating, but that’s how brutal qualifying can be. It came ultimately down to a couple of corners where we didn’t quite make it. There’s always something you want to improve, but you work with what you’ve got and focus on making the most of it.

“Looking ahead, overtaking around here is going to be tough – probably even harder than it was in Hungary. Track position will be key, and we may not be looking quite as strong on pure pace. We’ll look at all our options now strategy-wise and see how we can recover.”

"Qualifying has been a bit though today. I bottomed out a couple of times in Q1, which cost me some time, and the conditions were rather unstable overall. After Q1, I asked the team to check the floor and make some adjustments within the parameters, but even with that, the lap in Q2 just wasn’t enough to get me into Q3.

"On top of it, I caught some dirty air from Yuki [Tsunoda] in the middle sector on my last attempt, which didn’t help, and I lost a bit of time compared to my earlier push. I think Q3 could have been possible if everything had gone perfectly, but that wasn’t the case. Still, tomorrow is a new day, and we’ll focus on making the most of the opportunities we'll get in the race.

"Our race pace was decent yesterday, so if we stick to our plan and execute well, we might gain some positions and climb through the field."

Alpine

“Overall, I am happy with the outcome of today's Qualifying and I am pleased with how we turned things around as a team from Free Practice 3. We seemed to lack pace earlier today so to be in the fight for Q3 was good. Even though we are in fourteenth place, only a tenth and half was the difference to reaching Q3 and a hundredth between another two positions such are the small margins.

"Of course, we need more, but considering where we are with the car at the moment, we can be pleased with our effort. These close margins makes it exciting and puts even more on both the team and driver not to make any mistakes and maximise everything.

"We know this is not an easy track to overtake but we will see what we can do tomorrow. I would not mind some rain! It is a race and anything can happen.”

“It was a very tight Qualifying today. In Free Practice 3, we really struggled but in Qualifying the car was much stronger and in a much better place.

"We had the potential to go through to Q2, but we were very unfortunate with some traffic in Sector 3 on my final push lap. I had two cars in front of me, which was not useful, and lost some downforce as a result of the dirty air in Turns 11, 12 and 13. It's disappointing to miss out by such a small amount, especially from things outside our control.

"We were having a good session and on a good lap at the end so it's very disappointing. We want to perform as a team, we want to do better and all of us are pushing. We looked decent on high fuel on Friday so we hope to be strong tomorrow, whatever the weather.”

Haas

“It was a difficult session but things had started to get better, especially on the last set of tires. We had the pace to get into Q2 – it was only one tenth that separated us from it, but unfortunately I went a little wide in Turn 11 and that cost me a little bit. Both Ollie and I had the pace to get into Q2, but we just didn’t make it unfortunately.

"We need to reflect on why that is and if we can do a better job in the race tomorrow. Historically, we’ve had better race pace, so let’s see if we can do something different, we knew it was going to be tough.”

“The first run went really well and I had a good feeling in the car, it seemed like we were in a good window. On the second run we were on used tires and we still looked to be pretty decent, but then going onto new tires everyone else improved and I didn’t manage to make that improvement.

"I had a very different feeling underneath me compared to the previous set of tires, and there is a small change we made between the two runs, so we need to see if that was the cause of our issues or not. Our race pace has been okay, I’m not super hopeful, but we’ll see what we can do.”