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Verstappen rises against them all in Dutch Qualifying
- Rafael Diaz Lehmann
After the closest Qualifying of the year it was home-hero Max Verstappen who defended his pole position from last year to grab it for the second year in a row.
Q1 - Veterans caught out
The story of Q1 was the rampant track evolution causing the laptimes to be extremely close between everybody. This led to some big-name veterans being caught out and eliminated. Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo, and Sebastian Vettel all found themselves unable to continue further into the session, leaving them all severely disappointed.
Leading them all was home-hero Max Verstappen who posted one mega laptime at the beginning of the session and was comfortable enough to stay at the top for the entirety of it.
Eliminated: 16th - Valtteri Bottas, 17th - Kevin Magnussen, 18th - Daniel Ricciardo, 19th - Sebastian Vettel, 20th - Nicholas Latifi
Q2 - Ferrari and Mercedes strike back
The beginning of Q2 was bizarrely interrupted by a rogue orange flare finding its way onto the circuit, bringing out the red flag and ruining Alex Albon's first attempt at a lap. Once the running got back going again, it was extemely tight between the whole field. Max Verstappen took the early lead as he did in Q1, and it looked like things would stay that way until the end of the session where the Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc, as well as the Mercedes of George Russell all leaped the Dutchman. The field was extremely tight with the top-10 seperated by 6-tenths of a second.
Eliminated: 11th - Gasly, 12th - Ocon, 13th - Alonso, 14th - Zhou, 15th - Albon
Q3 - Verstappen rises above them all
After the first round of laps at the beginning of the session it was Charles Leclerc who set the pace early, setting a time less than a tenth of a second faster than his Dutch rival. Lewis Hamilton trailed behind the two, eager to grab his first pole position of the season. With the top-three teams to be this close together, it would truly be up to the driver to make the difference.
In the end, it was home-hero Max Verstappen and Red Bull who stood above them all, grabbing pole position in the dying moments, even after Leclerc improved upon his own laptime. The sister Red Bull of Sergio Perez ended up spinning on his final lap, distrupting the laps of Hamilton and Russell, who were on flyers. Carlos Sainz made it a 2-3 for the Scuderia.
Top 10: 1st - Max Verstappen, 2nd - Charles Leclerc, 3rd - Carlos Sainz, 4th - Lewis Hamilton, 5th - Sergio Perez, 6th - George Russell,