Oscar Piastri earns F1 Dutch GP pole by finest margin ahead of Lando Norris

Isack Hadjar takes career-best fourth for Racing Bulls

POLE: Oscar Piastri claimed pole for the Dutch Grand Prix with a mighty lap for McLaren at Zandvoort to beat his teammate Lando Norris into second place.

Oscar Piastri claimed pole for the Dutch Grand Prix with a mighty lap for McLaren at Zandvoort to beat his teammate Lando Norris into second place. The pair were firmly on top, solidly beating the Red Bull of Max Verstappen into third place. Isack Hadjar took a superb career-best fourth for Racing Bulls, with George Russell fifth for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton was seventh for Ferrari.

With Piastri and Norris locked in a title fight, the pace advantage for McLaren was once more demonstrated in the dunes on the edge of the North Sea. The pair have been on top all weekend, with Norris quickest in all three practice sessions, but when it mattered Piastri had the edge, pipping his teammate by one hundredth of a second.

The pole, Piastri’s first at Zandvoort, is another strong statement and something of a return to form over the single lap by the young Australian, his first since the Spanish GP in June. His fifth pole this season demonstrated once more that he is a formidable opponent, with a steely resilience in what will likely be a fiercely fought title battle with Norris.

Piastri has the edge in the title fight and will be confident he can maintain it in the Netherlands. In Spa, where the Australian went on to win, he passed Norris for the lead on the opening lap, making the most of his slipstream from second on the grid, but was then disappointed when Norris pulled off a strategic coup in Hungary to win before the summer break. The momentum has certainly been with Norris, with three wins from the past four races, and Piastri will want to exploit pole and stamp his authority on the title fight once more.

In what is now a two-horse race, he leads by nine points with 10 meetings remaining, including Zandvoort. Every one is increasingly vital for the title run-in.

On the first hot laps in Q3, Piastri opened with a pacy run but Norris hit back immediately, quicker in the middle sector. It was the Australian who held the edge over the line, though, with a time of 1min 8.662sec, one hundredth quicker than his teammate. The McLarens were in a class of their own, four tenths quicker than Verstappen in third and almost six tenths ahead of Russell in fourth.

For the final laps it was once more a single, deciding head-to-head lap for the McLarens and Norris led the field out. He did not improve in the first sector, while Piastri went quicker. Norris, strong in the middle, then did improve but could not quite better his teammate’s first time and Piastri too did not go quicker, his original lap having been enough by the slenderest of margins. Verstappen then threw himself at his final lap and looked threatening but despite his best efforts remained two tenths back.

Guardian