McLaren’s Lando Norris was the fastest in the qualifying session for the 2024 Formula 1 Grand Prix. Norris took his 4th pole position ahead of Red Bull’s Verstappen and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in third.
Despite the threat of another rainy session, Saturday’s qualifying was contested under dry and clear-sky conditions.
Nico Hülkenberg was the first driver out on track. The first driver set to join Audi’s F1 project had a struggle in practice sessions with spinning once in at least each of them.
As it seems that Mercedes and McLaren are the fastest teams at the Dutch Grand Prix so far, Lewis Hamilton set an early pace with just 2 thousand seconds ahead of Lando Norris.
The current championship leader Max Verstappen is in third with 18 thousands of a second behind.
Sainz takes the late lead at the end of Q1 jumping ahead of Mercedes-powered teams just to be jumped by Russell and then Perez at the end of the Q1.
Ricciardo and Ocon joined the Sauber duo and Williams’ Logan Sargeant who did not set a lap time, out of of Q1.
The second Qualifying round was marked by an early lead of the McLaren duo which was separated by 9 thousands of a second only.
The sky got darker again and this prompted teams to head back onto a track as quickly as possible due to a rain threat.
Both McLaren’s, Russell and Verstappen stayed in a pit lane thinking that their lap was well enough to secure them a promotion into Q3.
Rather actionless Qualifying session for the Dutch Grand Prix had seen a slight surprise with both Hamilton and Sainz being knocked out of a Q2.
Albon and Gasly were the ones who compromised positively from Hamilton’s and Sainz’s exit.
Moreover it seems that Aston Martin’s upgrades promoted them well into Q3 with both drivers showing a pace throughout a Dutch Grand Prix weekend.
In the final round of Qualifying it was all about two McLarens, Max Verstappen and George Russell to settle down a dispute for the pole position.
McLarens once again proved to be a benchmark and topped timing sheets ahead of Verstappen and Russell.
For some time Max Verstappen managed to pipe down Lando Norris from position after monstrous sector 2, however, McLaren’s protege took back the lead with a lap of 1:09.673 which was 3 tenths quicker than Max Verstappen.