Max Verstappen has claimed pole position ahead of tomorrow’s Dutch Grand Prix, beating out Lewis Hamilton in second by 0.038 seconds and Valtteri Bottas in third place. The Red Bull driver has claimed six out of last seven pole positions.
As the qualifying session began, Scuderia Ferrari continued to work and attempt to repair Carlos Sainz’s SF21 car, after the Spanish driver suffered a huge crash in the final free practice session at the Zandvoort circuit. The Maranello team did not have to change any parts such as engine or gearbox that would occur a grid penalty, but of course Carlos needed to get out in Q1 to ensure that fact was not made academic. With just a few moments until qualifying, Team Principal Mattia Binotto had sounded fairly pessimistic about the chances of this happening, but Ferrari successfully managed to repair Carlos Sainz’s damaged car and got him out in the first half of Q1.
Charles and Carlos had no problems to ensure Q2 progression, with Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica, Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin and most surprisingly Red Bull’s Sergio Perez knocked out in the first stage. Perez finished only 0.7s down on Charles Leclerc’s fastest time – but found himself out in Q1!
Q2 was underway at Zandvoort for the remaining 15 runners, as Charles Leclerc managed a great lap to finish in second place and easily get through to Q3. Williams drivers George Russell and Nicholas Latifi crashed bringing Q2 to an end without giving drivers the chance to complete their finals runs, but luckily Carlos Sainz was seventh at that moment, which allowed him to take part in the final qualifying stage.
That left us with a top 10 for the Q3 pole position shootout: Charles and Carlos made their first run on used soft tyres to get a general feeling of the track and then attempted one more flying lap at the end of Q3 with new soft tyres. Unfortunately the two Ferrari drivers could not improve and ended up fifth and sixth, behind the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly. Still, a good opportunity for the Maranello team to gain some points against McLaren, who start from P10 and P13.
Dutch Grand Prix – Here are the complete results from qualifying ahead of tomorrow’s 2021 F1 World Championship race at Zandvoort.
Results (Classification):
Q3
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing – 1:08.885
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.038
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +0.337
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +0.593
Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari +0.642
Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari +0.652
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo +0.705
Esteban Ocon Alpine +1.048
Fernando Alonso Alpine +1.071
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +1.281
Q2
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing – 1:09.071
Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari +0.366
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +0.470
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.655
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +0.698
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +0.794
Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari +0.799
Esteban Ocon Alpine +0.848
Fernando Alonso Alpine +0.949
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo +0.962
George Russell Williams Racing +1.261
Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.296
Lando Norris McLaren +1.335
Nicholas Latifi Williams Racing +2.090
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +2.243
Q1
Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari – 1:09.829
Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari +0.193
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.207
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo +0.221
Nicholas Latifi Williams Racing +0.264
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.285
Esteban Ocon Alpine +0.350
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +0.390
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +0.426
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +0.445
George Russell Williams Racing +0.553
Fernando Alonso Alpine +0.606
Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.609
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +0.633
Lando Norris McLaren +0.660
Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +0.701
Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +0.902
Robert Kubica Alfa Romeo +1.472
Mick Schumacher Haas +1.558
Nikita Mazepin Haas +2.046
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