LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD — Verstappen seizes pole for the return of the Dutch GP; Hamilton bests Bottas for P2
After last week’s rainout at Spa, it was a welcome sight to see the return of the Dutch Grand Prix to the Formula 1 schedule after an absence of some 36 years. Not only was the weather at the historic beachside Zadvoort circuit bright and sunny, but the track itself was a delightful tonic to the F1 enthusiast, with its undulating, twisty topography, unpredictably banked corners and its old school gravel traps and lack of runoff areas. While many of the drivers had some experience here in the junior ranks, none had driven challenging Zandvoort in anything like Formula 1 machinery and the learning curve was steep. But Red Bull’s young Dutch master aced the test at his home circuit by laying down a blistering 1:08.885 lap time over the short 4.259 kilometer circuit and besting the rapidly improving P2 Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton as time ran out in Saturday’s final qualifying session by a mere .038 seconds. Hamilton, who had a power unit swap earlier in Friday practice that cost him loads of track time, seemed to close the gap to Verstappen’s benchmarks rapidly as Q3 wound down and it should be a highly competitive battle between the two top championship contenders come tomorrow’s race when they line up side by side at the start. The race itself should likely be an unpredictable one with the walls so close and overtaking sure to be a difficult and frustrating proposition and the lap times very tight between competitors.
Hamilton’s P2 lap came at the expense of teammate Valtteri Bottas, who had held the second slot until the very last laps of qualifying were run. The Finn also looks to be out at Mercedes for next year, with Williams’ young, hard charging George Russell rumored to be taking his seat at the Silver Arrows and Valtteri moving to Alfa Romeo to replace the retiring Kimi Raikkonen. (Raikkonen will also miss this weekend’s action after testing positive for COVID-19. Longtime F1 driver Robert Kubica was brought in to replace him for the race.) Pierre Gasly continued to impress at AlphaTauri, blasting his way all the way up to P4 after being consistently fast all weekend long so far. The impressive Frenchman headed both the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who still managed solid efforts with times good enough for P5 and P6 respectively, a particularly good result for Sainz and his mechanics after the Spaniard mashed his front end into a barrier during free Practice 3 right before quali. Antonio Giovinazzi, who is also rumored to be on the hot seat at Alfa, pulled a great lap out of the bag to earn an impressive P7 on the grid. The two Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso qualified P8 and P9 respectively, and Daniel Ricciardo was the sole McLaren to make it into Q3 and then set the tenth fastest time. Surprisingly, his normally outstanding teammate Lando Norris failed to get out of Q2 after appearing to struggle with the gusty conditions here. Look for Lando, who will start back in P13, to storm his way up into the points come race day. He won’t be the only one out of position and hunting for early passing opportunities: Vertsappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez also got caught out by rapidly evolving track conditions early on and was unceremoniously bounced out in Q1. Coming off a very poor non-points finish at rainy Spa where he crashed on the reconnaissance lap, the veteran Mexican will have it all to do tomorrow if he is to be of any help to his teammate, as he will start way down in P16.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Dutch GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:10.036 | 1:09.071 | 1:08.885 | |
| 2 | 1:10.114 | 1:09.726 | 1:08.923 | |
| 3 | 1:10.219 | 1:09.769 | 1:09.222 | |
| 4 | 1:10.274 | 1:09.541 | 1:09.478 | |
| 5 | 1:09.829 | 1:09.437 | 1:09.527 | |
| 6 | 1:10.022 | 1:09.870 | 1:09.537 | |
| 7 | 1:10.050 | 1:10.033 | 1:09.590 | |
| 8 | 1:10.179 | 1:09.919 | 1:09.933 | |
| 9 | 1:10.435 | 1:10.020 | 1:09.956 | |
| 10 | 1:10.255 | 1:09.865 | 1:10.166 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 8AM Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States. With this tight and unforgiving track all but guaranteeing collisions between competitors and cars spearing off into the crash barriers, it should be an event-filled contest which could provide unpredictable results. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!