Dutch Grand Prix – Qualifying: Pole position at home for Max Verstappen!

In a qualifying session marked by the sun and a constant wind due to the proximity to the Black Sea, it was the current strong man, Max Verstappen, at home in front of his fans who secured a long-awaited pole position.

The Red Bull driver beat Lewis Hamilton by just 38 thousandths of a second. It was by this exact same margin that he was able to improve his last lap time. Without this last minute improvement, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen would have probably clocked the exact same time down to the millisecond.

Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton’s lieutenant at Mercedes, is playing his role perfectly as he secures third position and will therefore start from the second row. This is not really the case for Sergio Perez at Red Bull, who missed out on his second flying lap during the first qualifying session by just one second. Crossing the line with the lights already red, he was unable to complete a second timed lap.

The Zandvoort track has the particularity of being little used the rest of the season. The more single-seaters use it, the more rubber is deposited, allowing for an improvement in lap times. It is therefore crucial for drivers to start as late as possible in order to be the last to benefit from this track improvement, but in this game some have been tricked. This is also the case of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in leather who nevertheless managed to qualify thanks to their first attempt.

Pierre Gasly on AlphaTauri will start from the second row by taking a very impressive 4th position. He will be ahead of the two Ferraris who complete the third row: Leclerc ahead of Sainz.

More information in a few moments…