After three free practice sessions, it was time for qualifying in Zandvoort. A wet-to-dry session that was full of accidents.
Q1: Difficulties caused by rain
The first laps were coming in and the first mistakes too, Max Verstappen even makes mistakes. Warming up the tires at certain points on the track was more complicated than expected, causing more errors than usual due to a lack of grip.
Meanwhile, the track was improving exponentially, going from seeing the drivers finish first with a lap of 1’26 to seeing Lando Norris finish first with a time of 1’23’260.
Fernando Alonso finished his fastest lap for the first time to claim pole position, with a time of 1’22’793. The time Max Verstappen has only surpassed him by 7 thousandths.
At the end of the session, it rained again and it was a very difficult moment, with Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton or Carlos Sainz in the potential elimination zone for a large part of them, although they were all saved.
Those eliminated in Q1 are two Alfa Romeos, Guanyu Zhou in 16th, Valtteri Bottas in 19th, Esteban Ocon in 17th, Kevin Magnussen in 18th and Liam Lawson, a rookie, in last. .
Q2: Williams ranks in the top 10
Qualifying 2 began with Williams again shining, after Alex Albon finished fastest in the first quarter. However, it was Max Verstappen who managed to overtake him, setting a best of the day with a time of 1’20’690.
Several drivers continued to improve, with Lando Norris leading after a few minutes, 61 thousandths ahead of Verstappen.
The track kept drying out, to the point where it was completely dry by the end of the session, but no one tried to put a dry tyre on. That’s why we’ve seen all of the drivers make one last attempt in the middle.
The end of the second quarter left two unexpected surprises: Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll were both eliminated. On the other hand, Williams managed to get into the top 10, thus already becoming the best starting position for Logan Sargeant since he was in Formula 1.
Q3: Many accidents and tension until the end
Going into the final session, the track was already dry enough for some drivers to opt for the soft tyres. However, Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc or Sergio Pérez put the intermediate compounds on, and immediately changed them on the first lap when they started with said compound.
However, the session was short-lived as Logan Sargeant made a mistake and hit the wall at Turn 2 while doing his first flying lap. However, tomorrow the American will start in his best position since he has been in this category.
After a long period of being stuck in the pits, waiting for marshals to repair the damage to the bollards caused by Logan Sargeant, the drivers went out once more to face their final attempt.
Many drivers were able to close the lap, such as Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri, who were able to overtake Max Verstappen, but the session was stopped due to an accident involving Charles Leclerc at the ninth turn. Monaco did not allow any of the Spanish riders to close their lap, as they were about to do so when the red flag came out.
It was time for last-ditch efforts, and Max Verstappen was unstoppable on home turf, taking pole again at Circuit Zandvoort. Fernando Alonso, in turn, emerged a lot after the problems to finish fifth. Lando Norris was second, George Russell third, Alex Albon fourth and George Russell fifth.
Complete third quarter results
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