Max Verstappen storms to pole for Red Bull in home Dutch Grand Prix

Max Verstappen took pole for the Dutch Grand Prix, delivering a mighty lap for Red Bull at his home race in Zandvoort to beat the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz into second and third place. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were in fourth and sixth for Mercedes, with Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez in fifth.

On his first run in Q3 Verstappen went out first as he had earlier in the session, wanting to stamp his authority on the lap from the off. He was once more quick through the opening two sectors, pushing to the limit through the banking of Hugenholtz. He set a time of 1min 10.515sec but Leclerc followed him and found even more. Especially strong in the opening third, he took the lead by just six-hundredths of a second, with Hamilton two-tenths back.

It was an immense lap to answer Verstappen’s effort but with the track still evolving the final runs were crucial and impossibly tense. Leclerc led the leaders out, bettering his first sector time. Verstappen behind him went better in the middle sector and by the tiniest margin enjoyed the best of the run to the line, taking pole by just two-hundredths of a second with a time of 1min 10.342sec in a magnificent finish. Behind him Pérez spun through the final corner causing a yellow flag, ending the laps of those behind him, including Russell who was improving at the time.

This is Verstappen’s 17th pole position and his second at Zandvoort, after he also converted the top spot to a win last year when the circuit returned to the calendar for the first time since 1985. It is his first race at home since becoming world champion and a capacity crowd of 105,000 will be hoping for another celebratory win on Sunday.

It comes after a dominant win from 14th on the grid at the