Oscar Piastri beats McLaren teammate Lando Norris to end his wait for pole at F1’s Dutch GP

ZANDVOORT, Netherlands: Oscar Piastri found new pace to beat his teammate Lando Norris by just over one-hundredth of a second and take Formula 1 pole position for the first time in three months at the Dutch Grand Prix in qualifying on Saturday.

Piastri set the pace at the start of the final part of qualifying for Sunday’s race and Norris couldn’t quite match it, ending up .012 of a second off the pace as the title battle between the two McLaren teammates intensifies.

“That was the definition of peaking at the right time,” Piastri said. “It was looking like a little bit of a tricky weekend so far.”

It was the Australian’s fifth pole position of the year but his first since the Spanish Grand Prix, six races ago.

Norris, who won last year’s Dutch Grand Prix and was fastest in all three practice sessions this week, said it was “not the end of the world” to start second, and suggested small changes in the wind could have decided the result.

Piastri leads Norris by nine points in the standings with 10 races left of the season. Norris has closed the gap in recent months with wins in three of the last four races.

Verstappen improves

Defending champion Max Verstappen is set to start third for his home race. He’s third in the standings but a 97-point gap to Piastri means his title chances are remote.

Verstappen said it was “always very special” to compete in front of his home crowd and he was pleased with the improvement after a “tricky” time in practice.

“This is a really good step forward,” he said. “I hope that we can keep that up also going into the race tomorrow.”

Hadjar’s surprising fourth

Isack Hadjar was a surprise fourth for Racing Bulls in a career-best qualifying result for the French rookie, who is