Verstappen snatches pole from Leclerc at Zandvoort, Sainz P3
Hometown hero Max Verstappen left it late but managed to wrest away pole position for tomorrow’s Dutch Grand Prix from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc during Saturday qualifying at the short, twisty and rolling Zandvoort Circuit. The surging Red Bull ace pipped Leclerc’s very solid best effort by a mere .021 seconds in front of the adoring, orange-clad throng of his countrymen in the stands, locking in the fastest lap of Q3 before his teammate Sergio Perez spun out at the penultimate corner to bring the final quali session to a slightly premature end. Leclerc was not overly displeased to have missed out on the pole by such a small margin and, along with Carlos Sainz setting the third fastest time, Ferrari are feeling good about their chances to match Verstappen come race day. However, it must still be in the back of the Scuderia’s collective mind that their Prancing Horses’ fine one lap pace often evaporates under race conditions in the face of Verstappen’s supreme talent and the Red Bull’s so far superior long-run performance. With the 2022 season entering its final third, Leclerc and Ferrari have got to start beating Verstappen in the remaining eight races while also hoping the points leader has few unlucky DNFs along the way.
With Perez’s spin freezing him in P5 on the grid, Mercedes Lewis Hamilton was able to cross the line just ahead of the Mexican’s incident with a time good enough for P4. Along with George Russell’s P6 quali effort, the Silver Arrows felt they had more potentially to give in qualifying and will hope to convert that into a good race tomorrow, perhaps being able to mix it up with Ferrari for the podium positions on a short, twisty track that seems to suit the enigmatic Merc much better than long and flowing Spa did a week ago. The remainder of the top ten qualifiers featured sole representatives of their respective teams: Lando Norris P7 for McLaren, Mick Schumacher earning a much needed P8 start for Haas, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in P9 and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in P10. Stroll was very quick on the day but could not take part in Q3 due to a technical issue on his car. If the team can get that cleaned up by tomorrow, look for Lance to fight right up to Norris’s gearbox within the first ten laps, such has been the pace of the Mercedes-powered Aston so far.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Dutch GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:11.317 | 1:10.927 | 1:10.342 | |
| 2 | 1:11.443 | 1:10.988 | 1:10.363 | |
| 3 | 1:11.767 | 1:10.814 | 1:10.434 | |
| 4 | 1:11.331 | 1:11.075 | 1:10.648 | |
| 5 | 1:11.641 | 1:11.314 | 1:11.077 | |
| 6 | 1:11.561 | 1:10.824 | 1:11.147 | |
| 7 | 1:11.556 | 1:11.116 | 1:11.174 | |
| 8 | 1:11.741 | 1:11.420 | 1:11.442 | |
| 9 | 1:11.427 | 1:11.428 | 1:12.556 | |
| 10 | 1:11.568 | 1:11.416 |
Complete qualifying results viable via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. With Verstappen looking to tighten his stranglehold on the championship at his home race and Leclerc desperate to thwart Max’s recent unstoppable momentum on a very tight track, it could be an incident filled affair. Hope to see you then to find put how it all shakes out!