Lando Norris said he was "surprised" to take pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix after struggling with his car at Zandvoort earlier on Saturday. The reigning world champion had a pessimistic outlook after finishing third in the sprint race, behind winner George Russell and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, but responded emphatically in qualifying.
Norris mastered tricky conditions on the Dutch coastline to edge out Russell for pole by 0.102 seconds. Pole position is vital at Zandvoort, with all five races since its return to the calendar in 2021 being won from the front row.
Immediate turnaround in spirits
The result marked an immediate transformation for Norris, who won in Hungary before the summer break, after he had declared his McLaren was "nowhere near good enough" following the sprint. After sealing pole, he said: "A little surprised, honestly. Just a decent lap. I was pushing because you have seen how close it is and one hundredth, two hundredths can make a big difference in the end. But just a good turnaround from earlier today where I felt like we struggled a little bit."
"We felt very strong so the team did a good job, so credit to them. On trying to get a little bit more out of the car. We had to try something because what we had before wasn't going to be enough. So we made some small changes, nothing that wasn't going to make us gain two tenths or one tenth even, but enough to maybe give me a bit more confidence. I felt like I could do that more today and it paid off."
Earlier struggles explained
Earlier in the day, the 26-year-old had said of his car: "We don't have the pace in general, slow-speed corners we struggle so much compared to others. There is nothing we can do. The car is very good in high speed and nowhere near good enough in slow speed. In Budapest we were good in high-speed corners and pretty terrible in slow speed but we still managed to win. There are a lot more slow-speed corners here, more of our problems show. It is what we expected."
"There's nothing we can do about it now, it is just how the car is for the time being. I want to be fighting for top spot and trying to push forward and challenge George. The upgrades have all worked and they allowed me to be P3 today but we need more if we want to be fighting for a championship."
Qualifying results and title picture
Championship frontrunner Kimi Antonelli will start from third alongside Oscar Piastri, while Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton qualified only fifth after a frustrating day in his title pursuit. Russell had earlier delivered a dominant win in the 24-lap sprint, launching from pole and finishing 1.3 seconds ahead of Leclerc, who passed Norris on lap 18.
That trimmed Russell's deficit to team-mate Antonelli by three points to 56. Russell said after qualifying P2: "Lando did a great job, so congrats to him and McLaren. It was a strong session. I thought we had it in there to fight for pole, but I'm pretty satisfied with P2, especially going back after such a tough last few races before the break, sort of get in my groove again and try to fight with them tomorrow. I feel in a good place and just sort of feel myself again, which is really important. It was really nice to drive around here, and these cooler temperatures made the track feel really fast. So, it was a real joy for us all to drive, and looking forward to the race."
