Lando Norris reminded Max Verstappen of his world championship credentials by taking a brilliant pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix.
The British driver, who trails Verstappen by 78 points in the standings with 10 rounds still to play, saw off his rival by 0.356 seconds to silence the 100,000 spectators hoping to see the Dutchman start the Zandvoort race from the front.
Verstappen, without a win from his last four appearances, will start alongside Norris on the front row. Oscar Piastri took third, half a second down on McLaren teammate Norris.
Mercedes’ George Russell finished fourth as Lewis Hamilton endured an afternoon to forget after he failed to make it out of Q2. He will line up from 12th for Sunday’s 72-lap race.
Norris might have been much closer to Verstappen in the title race but for a catalogue of mistakes by driver and team.
However, the 24-year-old brought his A-game to qualifying with a scintillating final effort to provide himself with the best shot of kicking off the second half of the season with just the second win of his career.
Verstappen temporarily bumped Norris off the summit to huge cheers, only for Norris to knock the home favourite, who had taken three poles and three wins since the sport returned to the Netherlands in 2021, off his perch.
Hamilton headed into the summer break with his second win of the campaign after Russell was disqualified in Belgium.
But the seven-time world champion was no match for Russell here after qualifying four-tenths behind his teammate to leave him way down the order for Sunday’s race.
“OK, Lewis, I am afraid, mate, that is P12 so we have been bumped,” said Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington. “Just four and a half tenths to P1 so very tight in that mid-pack.”
It marked the second successive year that Hamilton has been eliminated in Q2 in Zandvoort, and the first time since China – a streak of 10 races – that he has failed to make the concluding part of qualifying. Hamilton is also under investigation for impeding Sergio Perez.
American driver Logan Sargeant watched from the sidelines after he was involved in a heavy crash in final practice that saw him jump out of his burning Williams.
Sargeant lost control of his car through the banked third corner in the wet conditions as he bounced off the barrier and back on to the track.
The 23-year-old suffered extensive damage to his car, as his right-rear tyre came loose and bounced along the asphalt, before it suddenly caught fire.
Sargeant emerged from his wrecked machine before slumping over the barriers. He was taken to the medical centre for precautionary checks but Williams were unable to repair his car in time.
Afterwards, Norris said: “An amazing day, nice to be back and start with a pole.
“It was a nice lap. The qualifying was always pretty smooth and put in some good laps especially the one at the end.
“I felt comfortable. The car was feeling amazing. We have some upgrades on the car for the first time in a while and everything is working well.”
Verstappen, who has never been beaten in a Grand Prix at Zandvoort, said: “The whole qualifying (we) just lacked a bit of pace. I’m still very happy to be on the front row.
“We have these gusts of wind coming in every lap is different so you can’t build.
“But after yesterday this is a good result. Hopefully, the car will be OK in the race. We will give it a good go but when you are more than 0.3secs behind in qualifying you have to be realistic.”
