2024 F1 Round 15, Dutch Grand Prix qualifying: Norris takes pole with 1:09.673, 0.356 seconds ahead of home favourite Verstappen

Qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix, Round 15 of the 2024 F1 season, concluded at Zandvoort on the evening of August 24, China Standard Time (UTC+8). McLaren’s Lando Norris took pole with a 1:09.673, a full 0.356 seconds ahead of home hero Max Verstappen; RB’s Yuki Tsunoda placed 12th and will start 11th following a disqualification and a penalty for drivers ahead of him.

Since Zandvoort returned to the calendar in 2021, Verstappen has maintained a perfect record of converting pole into victory here. This time, a strong middle sector on his final Q3 lap briefly took him to the top of the timesheets, but Norris, who crossed the line immediately behind him, substantially improved on his own benchmark—a 0.356-second gap is huge by modern F1 standards. Team-mate Oscar Piastri failed to put together a good final flying lap and missed out on the front row, slipping to third, but still edged Mercedes’ George Russell (fourth) by 0.072 seconds; Sergio Perez was fifth, Charles Leclerc sixth and Fernando Alonso, the oldest driver in the paddock, seventh.

Rain during FP3 washed the rubber off the track surface, while rapid track evolution and relatively low track temperatures made life difficult for the drivers in qualifying. Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz were both surprise Q2 casualties. The three official tyre compounds for this round are the C1 hard, C2 medium and C3 soft.

Perez and Hamilton provided the drama in Q1. Perez, who was top of the timesheets and on a flying lap, was impeded by Hamilton at Turn 9, ruining his timed run on that set of tyres. He angrily complained that a set of tyres had been needlessly wasted, while Hamilton maintained that he was doing his best to stay off Perez’s racing line. The incident ultimately earned Hamilton a three-place grid penalty for the race. Tsunoda was only 17th after his first timed run, in the elimination zone alongside team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in 16th. He improved on his final lap to move up to 12th and scrape through, while Ricciardo aborted his flying lap midway through and was eliminated in Q1. Sainz, who had lost a large chunk of FP2 to a gearbox problem, dropped to fifth at one point but recovered to third and advanced thanks to his final flying lap. Verstappen, Hamilton and both McLaren drivers each reached Q2 on a single set of soft tyres. Logan Sargeant missed qualifying because his car had not been fully repaired.

In Q2, Norris edged team-mate Piastri by just 0.009 seconds to take provisional top spot. Both McLarens, Russell and Verstappen opted not to use a second set of tyres and ended their running early to keep something in reserve for Q3. Tsunoda went 13th fastest on his first run on used softs. After switching to fresh tyres, he set personal bests in all three sectors on his final lap, but still missed out on Q3 by 0.110 seconds. Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly advanced to Q3 in seventh and ninth respectively, while Hamilton and Sainz failed to improve their times and were both eliminated. However, there was more drama after qualifying: Albon was disqualified because a floor component breached the technical regulations, dropping him to 19th on the grid; Hamilton received a three-place grid penalty for the earlier impeding incident and will start 14th; Sainz moved up to 10th on the grid, while Tsunoda was promoted to 11th.

The race will start at 21:00 China Standard Time (UTC+8) on August 25, with the drivers contesting 72 laps of the 4,307-metre Zandvoort circuit.