Verstappen hangs on to Dutch GP pole by 0.038s from Hamilton

Max Verstappen has claimed pole position for his home Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, beating Formula 1 championship leader Lewis Hamilton to top qualifying by just 0.038s.

After a cautious run in Q1, Verstappen ramped up the pace in Q2 and took it a step further in the final part of qualifying to set a 1m08.885s to take his seventh pole position of the 2021 season.

Valtteri Bottas was ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Hamilton before the final run, but Hamilton found three tenths on his final lap to jump Bottas and come within half a tenth of Verstappen’s benchmark.

Bottas was forced to settle for third place ahead of Pierre Gasly, who matched his season-best fourth place in Baku for AlphaTauri.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were one-two in Q1 but qualified in fifth and sixth place for Ferrari respectively, while Antonio Giovinazzi delivered a career-best seventh place for Alfa Romeo amid rampant speculation about his future.

The top 10 was rounded out by the two Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso, and the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo.

George Russell was unable to match his Belgian GP qualifying heroics as he spun into the gravel at the Turn 13 right-hander in Q2.

🚩 RED FLAG 🚩

Russell slides into the barriers

He manages to get going again, radios his apologies to the Williams team and heads back to the pits #DutchGP 🇳🇱 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Ia3t1c2OnE

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 4, 2021

His Williams made contact with the barrier but Russell managed to keep his car running and got back onto the track. He got back to the pits but the damage he sustained meant he took no further part in the session.

Before he could do so, the red flag had been flown and the session was briefly suspended.

When it resumed, his team-mate Nicholas Latifi blew his best chance to out-qualify Russell for the first time, as he dipped a wheel on the grass and lost control of his car, slamming into the barriers at the Turn 8 right-hander.

🚩 RED FLAG 🚩

Now it's Latifi into the barriers.

A big impact, but the Canadian radios to the team that he is ok#DutchGP 🇳🇱 #F1 pic.twitter.com/B20eotYqky

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 4, 2021

With one minute on the clock, the session was prematurely ended, and Russell was knocked out in 11th and Latifi 14th.

In-between the Williams duo was Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Lando Norris who struggled to his first Q2 exit of the season in 13th place ahead of Latifi and F1 rookie Yuki Tsunoda.

Sergio Perez was dumped out of Q1 for the first time as a Red Bull driver, when he failed to make it to the chequered flag in time to start his final flying lap.

He blamed the slowness of his rivals ahead of him, but 16th place marks the worst qualifying result for a Red Bull driver since Alex Albon crashed out of Q1 at the 2019 Russian Grand Prix.

Four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel was another surprise Q1 drop-out as he was met with both Haas drivers running side-by-side in his path as he approached the final banked corner.

The stewards will investigate Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin and Vettel after the session.

In his first F1 qualifying since the 2019 Abu Dhabi GP, Robert Kubica qualified in 18th place but was some 1.251s slower than Giovinazzi.

Schumacher was half a second faster than Mazepin and they will once again share the back row of the grid.

Qualifying Results