Impressive Norris SMASHES Verstappen's lap time for pole in Zandvoort

Verstappen has lost his 100% record of topping the meaningful sessions at Zandvoort. Since the Dutch Grand Prix returned in 2021, the Dutchman has qualified on pole position and took the race victory every single year until 2024. He made ground in his final lap in qualifying, but Norris smashed it. The Brit beat Verstappen by more than three-tenths.

George Russell got the final place on the second row, with Perez starting from fifth.

Hamilton will start from at least 12th on the grid. The Brit was knocked out of Q2, along with Carlos Sainz. The Mercedes driver will also have to see the stewards as they want to investigate potential impeding against Sergio Perez in Q1.

Q1

Despite a substantial threat of rain in the forecast—and rain during the weekend—the qualifying session at Zandvoort started in sunshine. However, the wind levels still created difficult conditions for the drivers. Due to wet weather and a lengthy red flag, hardly any drivers had completed many laps on the soft tyres before Q1. Williams tried hard to get Logan Sargeant on track after his horror crash and fire in FP3, but the American didn't make it out on track.

After the first set of runs, Sargeant was joined by both VCARB drivers and Stake drivers. Sergio Perez became angry with Lewis Hamilton. The Mexican felt he was impeded by the seven-time World Champion. As a result, Perez sent an angry radio message aimed at Hamilton. The stewards noted the incident, which occurred early in Q1.

Perez left it very late, but in the end, the Mexican driver set the session's fastest time. However, the Red Bull car had to use an extra set of soft tyres to complete that lap. Yuki Tsunoda escaped the drop zone and was replaced by Esteban Ocon. He described the car as a disaster.

Out - P20 Sargeant, P19 Zhou, P18 Bottas, P17 Ocon, P16 Ricciardo

Q2

Red Bull patted Perez on the back for topping Q1, but the Mexican remained angry in the pits because he had to use an extra set of soft tyres. At the halfway stage, McLaren maintained their advantage over Verstappen. Gasly, Tsunoda and Albon joined the Haas drivers in the drop zone.

The second part of Q2 was very surprising. Hamilton, who has won two of the last three races, didn't escape Q2. The Brit experienced oversteer at turn one and never recovered. Meanwhile, Russell finished in the top three, less than one-tenth shy of Norris' quickest time. Verstappen was also close to getting knocked out. 

Out - P15 Magnussen, P14 Hulkenberg, P13 Tsunoda P12 Hamilton P11 Sainz