Orange was the dominant colour come the end of qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix, but not in the shade usually associated with local hero Max Verstappen. In fact, papaya came out on top courtesy of Lando Norris and his McLaren, who brilliantly demoted the Dutchman’s last attempt in an exciting finale to Q3. The McLaren proved its superiority – at least over a flying lap - by just 356 thousandths of a second. The on-form team also had Oscar Piastri in third place, albeit almost half a second down on his team-mate.

This was Norris’ fourth pole position, his third this season and McLaren now has 159 number one starts to its name. It was the first time since 1984 that McLaren secured what was its only other pole for the Dutch Grand Prix, forty years ago courtesy of Alain Prost.

THE DAY ON TRACK
The third free practice session provided little in the way of useful information, both because it was run on a wet track and because it only really lasted a little over a quarter of an hour, as there was a long pause following Logan Sargeant’s crash in the Williams.

By depriving second placed Max Verstappen of pole, Norris also scotched a potential meeting of two legends of Dutch sport. In fact, the Englishman was presented with the Pirelli Pole Position Award by Ruud Gullit, one of the greatest football players of the second half of the last century. Gullit won a European title with the Dutch national team in 1988, three Dutch championships, three Italian championships, two Champions Cups, two European Supercups, two Intercontinental Cups, two Netherlands Cups, one Coppa Italia and one English FA Cup, this last one in the role of player-manager for Chelsea.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“It all looked very closely matched during two free practice sessions and the first two parts of qualifying, but then in Q3, Norris made a step forward which put pole out of reach of his competitors, with a fantastic lap: 356 thousandths is a very significant advantage on a track that is only a little over four kilometres in length!

“Clearly, because of the bad weather and various interruptions, preparation for teams and drivers was far from optimal for the grid-deciding session. In those 60 minutes, it was clear the Soft offered peak performance on the first flying lap and so, the use of a new set saw a significant improvement in lap time, probably even superior to that offered by the evolution of the track conditions.

“As for possible scenarios for tomorrow’s race, the relatively little data gathered over three hours of free practice still confirmed the results of simulations prior to the event. On paper, the one-stop is quickest, with the C3/C1 combination preferable to a C2/C3: in the first case the pit stop window can be between laps 24 and 30, while for the second it should open four laps later and close on lap 34."