Verstappen secures pole positon for the Dutch Grand Prix, Norris P2

Verstappen secures his eighth pole position during the 2023 Formula 1 season and the 28th in his career. He maintains his 100% record of P1s in either qualifying or the race at his home Grand Prix since the event returned to the calendar in 2021.

Liam Lawson made his F1 qualifying debut. The New Zealander was called upon by AlphaTauri because Daniel Ricciardo crashed and injured himself during FP2. Lawson finished slowest and will start from P20 on the grid. A lot of praise will go towards Alex Albon, who continued to set purple sectors after purple sectors. His teammate made it through to Q3 for the first time in his career to prove that Williams are very strong at Circuit Zandvoort. However, Sargeant crashed on his first flying lap in Q3 to bring out the red flag. Charles Leclerc crashed later in Q3. 

Lewis Hamilton failed to reach Q2 as he and Mercedes didn't push when the circuit was at its best. The Mercedes driver is the only front-runner who finds himself out of position on the grid. Not for the first time in 2023, drivers had to battle changing track conditions. The circuit started off wet, and dried throughout. The crossover point became a frequent topic of conversation on the radio.

The start of Q3 saw the soft tyres make their Saturday debut in Zandvoort 2023. Those who did try the intermediate tyres very quickly returned to the pits for softs. But Sargeant proved it was still treacherous by crashing at turn two. This caused a red flag with eight minutes remaining in the session. There was a lengthy delay as repairs were needed to the barrier. After the first run, Norris led the way, and Piastri blocked the front row from Verstappen in P3. 

Leclerc was the next driver to bring out the red flag due to a crash with four minutes on the track. Verstappen and Norris upped the pace drastically, but the Dutchman was more consistent throughout the lap to take pole with a 1:10.567. Norris' time was good enough to take P2, and Russell made a late lunge to take P3. Albon made finished 4th to complete a fantastic session for the British-Thai driver.

Q1

Despite the recent rain, which curtailed the F2 sprint race, F1 started on time. All drivers opted to start with the intermediate tyres, and the majority left the garage as quickly as possible because of dark clouds in the background. This included Lawson, who started his first F1 qualifying session because he is replacing the injured Ricciardo. Verstappen was one of the last drivers to come out of the pit lane. 

The conditions were tricky, which caused a few drivers to run across the gravel. This included the current World Champion who then proceeded to send an angry message on the radio regarding grip levels. The intermediate tyres meant drivers could stay on the track for longer, and the times tumbled as the grip levels increased. McLaren were the first to spend a significant amount of time at the top of the leaderboard, but Verstappen led with five minutes to go.

Both Haas drivers, Lawson, Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant sat in the drop zone with five minutes remaining. Hamilton sat on the edge. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz came out of the pits and pushed Piastri onto the grass. Hamilton had incidents with both Aston Martin drivers that were noted by the stewards. Conditions started to worsen in the final minutes of qualifying, putting pressure on big names, including Leclerc. The man from Monaco had several slides but did enough to escape. Albon finished fastest. 

Out - 20th Lawson, 19th Bottas, 18th Magnussen, 17th Ocon, 16th - Zhou 

Q2

Q2 started in similar conditions. The sun started to shine on the track so the crossover point from intermediates to slicks started to get thought about. With five minutes remaining, Perez and Sainz sat in the drop zone. They were joined by Tsunoda, Hulkenberg and Gasly. The final corner of the circuit looked very dry, but drivers continued to circle on the intermediates. 

Nobody made the switch to slick tyres because the slow corners were still too moist. This time Sainz had the pressure on his shoulders at Ferrari and moved to P9. Hamilton pushed a lap too early and didn't have the speed in the final run so pitted. The Brit will start from P13. 

Out - 15th Hulkenberg, 14th Tsunoda, 13th Hamilton, 12th Gasly, 11th Stroll