Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Oscar Piastri found plenty of encouraging pace but it still wasn’t enough to get McLaren’s Australian ace into the qualifying shake-up at Zandvoort as teammate Lando Norris roared to back-to-back poles at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Back at the track where this time last year he had seemed to be on top of the world, Piastri had looked sharp for most of the qualifying session on Saturday, hours after he had only been able to finish fifth in the sprint race behind victorious Mercedes driver George Russell.
But when it came to the Q3 with spots of rain threatening, it was Norris who continued his recent renaissance, taking pole just as he had done last time out at the Hungarian Grand Prix when he went on to win the race.
It left Norris chuckling: “Our car is certainly the best in high speed, no doubt — or I have the biggest balls. … I don’t know!”
As F1 returned after its mid-season August break, rain was beginning to fall at Zandvoort in Q3 as Norris went quickest first time out, then remained unfazed to reclaim pole by 0.102sec from Russell with a 1min 11.163sec lap.
Mercedes’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli was third (1:11.296) was third.
But last year’s winner Piastri, who had been quickest in Q1 and second-fastest behind Norris in Q2, slipped back to fourth with his best lap of 1:11.305.
Still, the Victorian was not about to feel dismayed by his performance.
“I mean, honestly, I’ve been a lot happier this weekend,” insisted Piastri.
“Especially over one lap, I feel like things have come a lot more naturally.
“I would have loved a little better lap time in Q3, but honestly I feel like my lap was pretty good. I don’t have any major complaints, I just need to keep chipping away.”
Norris reckoned he was “a little surprised” after securing his 18th career pole.
He’d earlier been unimpressed by how his McLaren had handled through the slower corners in the sprint and was delighted with how the team swiftly made the corrections before qualifying.
“We had to try something because what we had before wasn’t going to be enough. The changes were small but enough to give me some confidence,” he said.
Russell reckoned it had been “a real joy” to drive in qualifying after his win in the sprint had reduced his teenage teammate Antonelli’s lead to 56 points.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who was a disappointing seventh in the sprint, remains second in the standings, 53 points behind Antonelli and three ahead of Russell, but his poor day continued when he finished fifth in qualifying.
The sprint had featured real dominance from Russell, who started from pole, and ended up winning from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who snatched second place off Norris with a daring pass on the inside of the first corner with six laps to go.
Norris will now start a hot favourite on Sunday, given the recent record at the seaside resort of Zandvoort where the polesitter has gone on to win the Dutch race ever since it returned to the calendar in 2021 following a 34-year absence.
