Dramatic qualifying in the Netherlands: a big accident, a shock in Q1 and a great atmosphere!

Qualifying for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix is over and it brought a really attractive spectacle. We have already witnessed the fifth red flags during this race weekend! And guess who took pole position with great support from the Oranjes.

The race circuit in Zandvoort is not only narrow, short and very fast, but also very specific and technically quite demanding. And that’s mainly due to the twisty turns 3 and 12.

Turn 3 in particular is very interesting and unique. At the bottom of the corner, it has a gradient of only 4.5 degrees. Then, towards the top, it gradually increases and reaches up to 19 degrees according to the so-called Finobacci sequence.

Because of these characteristics, the track itself “accelerated” during qualifying, which was particularly noticeable in Q2 on lap times. Of course, the more such a circuit is used and the faster it is driven, the higher the track temperature increases.

This also results in the tyres having more grip on the track surface, hence the term “accelerating” circuit.

But let’s take a look at the results of the qualifying session itself. The first part of the qualifying session was already a big shock. Sergio Pérez didn’t make it to Q2 and won’t help Max Verstappen in his battle against the two Mercedes.

Pérez complained about too much traffic in radio communication, as did Sebastian Vettel, who also failed to qualify for Q2. It was Vettel who avoided Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepina in his timed lap. The manoeuvre cost him fast time and condemned the four-time world champion to start from 17th position.

The first part of qualifying was dominated by the Ferrari stable, with Lando Norris narrowly advancing to Q2!

And it was in the second part of Saturday’s performance that we witnessed George Russell’s accident, after which red flags flew on the circuit for the fifth time during the race weekend! Qualifying was thus halted, but Russell’s Williams was not damaged to the extent that the young driver would not be able to drive it back to the pits.

At that point, there were just under four minutes remaining in Q2. But with about a minute and a half to go, qualifying was stopped again (sixth red flag), again for a driver from the Williams stable. That’s how Nicholas Latifi ended up in the tech-pro barrier.

Following this incident, the directorate, headed by Michael Masi, terminated the second part of qualifying, from which Yuki Cunoda, Latifi, Norris, Lance Stroll and George Russell also failed to progress due to this incident.

A thrilling Q3 was then won by Max Verstappen by just 38 thousandths of a second! He will be joined on the front row by Lewis Hamilton on Sunday. In the second row we find Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly, in the third row both Ferrari cars – 5th Charles Leclerc and 6th Carlos Sainz.

Antonio Giovinazzi starts seventh, Esteban Ocon eighth, Fernando Alonso ninth and Daniel Ricciardo completes the top ten. What does the rest of the grid look like?

11. Russell, 12th Stroll, 13th Norris, 14th Latifi, 15th Cunoda, 16th Pérez, 17th Vettel, 18th Kubica, 19th Schumacher and Mazepin will start from the last position. The Dutch Grand Prix at the Zandvoort circuit starts at the stroke of 15 o’clock on Sunday.

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