What a title fight Formula One would have on its hands if McLaren could make the final steps with their car. This was demonstrated to dramatic effect on Saturday as Lando Norris hurled his ride around Zandvoort to claim pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix. It was a prize secured against the odds and his own expectations, hours after he had bemoaned being in no position to fulfil his hopes of mounting a successful title defence.
The McLaren car is immensely quick through the fast corners, perhaps the class of the field, but is haemorrhaging time through the slow stuff, the package not quite complete, or suboptimal as Ron Dennis would have had it. Yet Norris managed to eke out its very best across the circuit to see off the Mercedes of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli into second and third place. The season’s dominant car was subdued by Norris in qualifying for the second race in succession, after he took pole in Hungary.
Earlier in the day the defending world champion was disgruntled at best with his ride. Russell had won the sprint race with a controlled dominance from pole position, but Norris had gone from second to third, struggling for grip and pace, passed late on by Charles Leclerc. His assessment was blunt.
“We don’t have the pace in general, slow-speed corners we struggle so much compared to others. There is nothing we can do,” he said. “The upgrades have all worked and they allowed me to be P3 today, but we need more if we want to be fighting for a championship.”
A turnaround had not been expected, but with fresh tyres and low fuel the McLaren was a less recalcitrant beast and Norris delivered a mighty lap in the final runs to see off Russell and Antonelli by a tenth of a second.
“Our biggest losses were still the same places, the same corners, as it was this morning,” he said. “It’s just new tyres, low fuel. It just seems to mask quite a few of our issues and that was probably still the case today. I just drove well, I put a lot of things together.”
Which sets up an intriguing prospect for Sunday’s race. With tyre wear and fat with fuel he will have to fight hard to keep the two Mercedes behind him.
Quick GuideDutch F1 qualifying
Show
1 Lando Norris 🇬🇧 McLaren 1:11.163
2 George Russell 🇬🇧 Mercedes 1:11.265
3 Kimi Antonelli 🇮🇹 Mercedes 1:11.296
4 Oscar Piastri 🇦🇺 McLaren 1:11.305
5 Lewis Hamilton 🇬🇧 Ferrari 1:11.494
6 Charles Leclerc 🇲🇨 Ferrari 1:11.558
7 Max Verstappen 🇳🇱 Red Bull 1:11.618
8 Liam Lawson 🇫🇷 Red Bull 1:11.733
9 Gabriel Bortoleto 🇧🇷 Audi 1:12.079
10 Arvid Lindblad 🇬🇧 Racing Bulls 1:12.185
Q2 eliminations
11 Pierre Gasly 🇫🇷 Alpine 1:12.616
12 Yuki Tsunoda 🇯🇵 Racing Bulls 1:12.627
13 Nico Hülkenberg 🇩🇪 Audi 1:12.797
14 Franco Colapinto 🇦🇷 Alpine 1:12.800
15 Esteban Ocon 🇫🇷 Haas 1:13.137
16 Alexander Albon 🇹🇭 Williams 1:13.182
Q1 eliminations
17 Carlos Sainz 🇪🇸 Williams 1:13.574
18 Fernando Alonso 🇪🇸 Aston Martin 1:13.650
19 Lance Stroll 🇨🇦 Aston Martin 1:13.818
20 Oliver Bearman 🇬🇧 Haas 1:13.826
21 Valtteri Bottas 🇫🇮 Cadillac 1:14.371
22 Sergio Pérez 🇲🇽 Cadillac 1:14.600
With Russell’s sprint victory and Antonelli only fourth, the Briton trails his teammate by 56 points, in third place in the championship. Lewis Hamilton is 53 points back in second and Norris 90 points in arrears.
Most notable is how much more comfortable Russell has looked in the car this weekend, after struggling with problems around its energy deployment that had left him frustrated and examining his driving style. Having said he intended to drive more instinctively here he came into the weekend confident, took pole and then victory in the sprint race. While he was beaten to pole in qualifying, Russell was quicker than his teammate.
Certainly he appeared to be enjoying himself once more. “I just feel way more relaxed. I don’t feel like I’ve got anything to lose. The pressure’s off,” he said. “I’m just going to go out and enjoy it. I don’t even really feel in a fight. It’s not mine to lose. It’s mine to gain. So that’s the mentality I’ve got, I feel it’s going to help me, I’m just enjoying driving.”
Norris went on to win from pole in Hungary and with Piastri taking the win here last year and Norris in 2024, McLaren may still make it three in a row, which would be a testament to their impressive work. Their car development has been ferocious and most importantly effective, including another swathe of developments brought here, fulfilling the expectations of the team principal, Andrea Stella, whose calm assurance at the helm has once more been a striking piece of management as the team adjusted to the new regulations.
All of which may yet shake down into a tense title fight and the teenager Antonelli was aware his rivals were watching closely to see how he handles it, a task which comes with the territory. “It was a very good wake-up call this weekend, that you can never lower your guard,” he said. “When you do that, I made a mistake yesterday and today I made a mistake in Q3.
“It’s not that I’m driving more tense or anything but I feel this weekend is a good wake-up call to just put things in the right place at the right time and deliver the result when it counts.”
It all sets the scene for a showdown beside the North Sea on Sunday.
