A tenth of a second separated Mercedes from both McLarens at Circuit Zandvoort, and McLaren‘s drivers believe the missing time was sitting in the soft tires.
Mercedes’ George Russell secured pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix Sprint on Friday with a 1:11.567 lap in Sprint Qualifying. McLaren’s Lando Norris placed second, clocking 1:11.608 to finish 0.041 seconds behind Russell, while Oscar Piastri took fourth with a 1:11.666. Piastri was 0.099 seconds slower than Russell and 0.058 seconds adrift of Norris.
Ferrari‘s Charles Leclerc slotted between the two McLarens after posting a 1:11.622, leaving him 0.014 seconds short of Norris. Just 0.099 seconds covered the leading four, leaving little margin for McLaren’s pair to rue.
McLaren Had the Pace Before the Soft-Tire Change
The result looked less encouraging when compared with SQ2. Piastri led that session in 1:12.026, Norris followed in 1:12.189, and both were ahead of Russell’s 1:12.235. The order changed plenty in SQ3: Russell climbed from fourth to first, while Piastri fell from first to fourth.
Norris improved by 0.581 seconds between the two segments, while Piastri gained 0.360 seconds. Norris still felt the soft compound did not deliver the expected step over the medium tire.
“I think reasonably [I’m still] happy [with the result], still a good position, Norris said. “Yeah, was a reasonable lap and considering how close it was, you know, easily could have been first, easily could have been fourth or fifth, so no, a good qualifying, close between all the teams, which is exactly what we expected. But yeah, just of course a little bit disappointing to be P2 instead of P1.”
He continued, explaining that he maybe didn’t fully explore what the soft tires had to offer.
“I think just the step onto the soft, there was probably a little bit more grip that I didn’t quite get out of it from the medium onto the soft for SQ3, so I think maybe I could have just pushed it a little bit more. But I think otherwise, the car’s been performing well and looks like it’s continued its strong performance from Budapest, so plenty of positives and hopefully that just continues for the rest of the weekend. And yeah, some things I can work on, some things we can maybe get out of the car for tomorrow’s qualifying. And yeah, but we started the weekend strong, so happy with that.”
Piastri said the medium compound gave him a more comfortable balance than the softs:
“I think, just the soft lap wasn’t quite as good, and I feel like it’s often the case this year that you put the soft tire on and it’s not quite as nice as the balance you have on the medium. But no, compared to where I was this morning in practice, much happier.
“We changed a few things, and I was a lot happier. I think that’s the positive is the progress from this morning. Yeah, obviously it was pretty close, and I feel like with a better lap, maybe we could have had pole, but I’m learning and improving, so that’s the most important thing.”
That does not make fourth place a disaster. Piastri had been sixth in the only practice session, then moved to first in SQ2 before ending SQ3 fourth.
Russell Starts First, But McLaren Is Still in the Fight
Norris expects overtaking to be difficult at Zandvoort. “It’s not an easy track to overtake,” he said, while also pointing out that the inside grid lane is less favorable than the left side. Piastri expects a close fight involving McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes, with the remaining gains likely to come from small setup and driving improvements.
McLaren has both cars on the first two rows, which is a strong place to begin.
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