F1: Verstappen Silences Opposition To Take Dutch GP Pole

It was raining orange on the Circuit Zandvoort - once even literally as someone threw an orange smoke flare on the track triggering a red flag in Q2 - as Max Verstappen set the fastest lap time against odds to claim pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix. There was no denying that both Ferrari and Mercedes had pace and the battle for pole was pretty much 5-way - Sergio Perez never looked in contention - but Verstappen won the battle taking the best possible seat for tomorrow's race. He will start the race ahead of the two Ferraris, With Charles Leclerc in P2 and Carlos Sainz in P3, while the Mercedes cars couldn't get clean final runs as Sergio Perez spun on the final corner. Lewis Hamilton qualified P4 and George Russel qualified P6, behind Sergio Perez in 5th.

Also Read: F1 2022 Dutch GP Preview: Onto The Land Of The Orange Army

“Unbelievable. Today we had a quick race car again. A qualifying lap around here is insane” Max Verstappen exclaimed after bagging pole position. However, it's all game between the top 3 teams tomorrow, as almost all the drivers showed more or less the same pace and can turn things around tomorrow with a better strategy or a quicker race car. Leclerc was a mere 0.021 seconds behind Verstappen, with Carlos Sainz within a tenth of a second too.

Both the Ferraris were within a tenth of Max Verstappen.

Multiple drivers were impressive in qualifying, but not everyone necessarily got to convert their pace into positions. Alex Albon drove well in Q1 and in initial stages of Q2, but his last run was mistimed, meaning everyone else swallowed his lap time with the ever-evolving track, dropping him to P15. Lance Stroll impressed too, and according to the AWS graphics, he was the fastest in the slow speed corners, even ahead of the front runners. But the Canadian had technical issues in his car in Q3, meaning he couldn't set a competitive time and had to settle for P10. In the sister Aston Martin, Sebastian Vettel couldn't put a good lap together running wide in to a gravel trap on his final Q1 run, qualifying a lowly P19.

The Aston Martin car showed good pace in Qualifying, especially with Stroll.

On the other hand, Mick Schumacher drove really well, and a lap time only 4 tenths of a second slower than Sergio Perez means that he will start tomorrow's race in P8. However, Magnussen on the other hand couldn't get his Haas out of Q1. Lando Norris put his McLaren up in P7, but teammate Ricciardo got knocked out in Q1 too. Yuki Tsunoda qualified ahead of his teammate Gasly, and will start in P9. It was also a disappointing afternoon for Alpine, as both of the team's cars got knocked out in Q2 itself.

Mick Schumacher impressed by qualifying up in P8.

2022 Formula 1 Round 15 Dutch GP: Qualifying Results