Lando Norris pips Max Verstappen to take pole position for Dutch Grand Prix

Lando Norris reminded Max Verstappen of his world championship credentials by taking a brilliant pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix.

The British driver, who trails Verstappen by 78 points in the standings with 10 rounds still to play, saw off his rival by 0.356 seconds to silence the 100,000 spectators hoping to see the Dutchman start the Zandvoort race from the front.

Verstappen, without a win from his last four appearances, will start alongside Norris on the front row. Oscar Piastri took third, half a second down on McLaren team-mate Norris.

Mercedes' George Russell finished fourth as Lewis Hamilton endured an afternoon to forget after he failed to make it out of Q2. He will line up from 12th for Sunday’s 72-lap race.

Norris might have been much closer to Verstappen in the title race but for a catalogue of mistakes by driver and team.

However, the 24-year-old brought his A-game to qualifying with a scintillating final effort to provide himself with the best shot of kicking off the second half of the season with just the second win of his career.

Verstappen temporarily bumped Norris off the summit to huge cheers, only for Norris to knock the home favourite, who had taken three poles and three wins since the sport returned to the Netherlands in 2021, off his perch.

Hamilton headed into the summer break with his second win of the campaign after Russell was disqualified in Belgium.

But the seven-time world champion was no match for Russell here after qualifying four-tenths behind his team-mate to leave him way down the order for Sunday’s race.

"OK, Lewis, I am afraid, mate, that is P12 so we have been bumped," said Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington. "Just four-and-a-half tenths to P1 so very tight in that mid-pack."

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