In an analysis of the final 10 circuits on the calendar<\/a>, Zandvoort was always in the Norris column.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s not just that the Briton won here last year. It\u2019s that he destroyed Piastri in qualifying and finished the race 40 seconds up the road \u2014 albeit after the Australian had to recover lost ground off the line.<\/p>\n
It sits among a handful of circuits at which the Briton has had a firm upper hand on his teammate in recent years, including before Piastri joined the team.<\/p>\n
After sweeping all three practice sessions \u2014 the final one by a foreboding 0.242 seconds \u2014 there was nothing to suggest his advantage had diminished significantly.<\/p>\n
And after topping Q2 \u2014 he would\u2019ve topped Q1 too had Piastri not set a second time on used softs \u2014 it was beginning to look like his comprehensive performance in Austria, the bounce-back race after Canada that got his season back on track.<\/p>\n
But at the death, in the session that mattered most, it was Piastri who came through with the goods, pinching what had looked like a predetermined pole position from under Norris\u2019s nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the definition of peaking at the right time,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was looking like a little bit of a tricky weekend, so to come out with that, I\u2019m pretty stoked.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some ways this is very on brand for the Melburnian.<\/p>\n
His reputation for incremental gains is now well established. Regularly we see him look a step behind during Friday practice only to emerge a step ahead by qualifying, having used the evening to dissect his weaknesses and turn them into strengths.<\/p>\n
But in another way this significantly different \u2014 and significantly meaningful in the context of the title battle.<\/p>\n
All weekend Piastri has struggled at particular parts of the track. The transition from turn 9 into turn 10 was the biggest difficulty, as was the chicane in the final sector.<\/p>\n
On Friday it seemed unlocking those corners would open the path to pole. That\u2019s usually what would happen \u2014 he would learn what Norris was doing well and apply that to his own performance.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not what he did here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just been a couple of corners that I\u2019ve not been able to go any faster,\u201d he explained. \u201cI didn\u2019t really go any faster in those corners, but I found some more elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just improved the parts where I was already not bad and made up the difference that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are still some things to try and improve and work on, but overall I\u2019m very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri was faster \u2014 as he has been all weekend \u2014 in the first sector, but that was thanks principally to the way he tackled the tricky banked turn 3, riding a higher, smoother line that allowed him to take a higher speed at the apex and then gain all the way through the subsequent high-speed bends. He was particularly quick through turn 7, where he lifted less off the throttle than his teammate.<\/p>\n
His lead peaked at around 0.13 seconds. It was just enough to neutralise Norris\u2019s gain of roughly the same by the exit of turn 10.<\/p>\n
It all then came down to the final true corner, where Piastri was earlier rolling off the throttle and more decisive getting back on it \u2014 allowing him to avoid dabbing the brakes \u2014 to power over the line an infinitesimal 0.012 seconds quicker than Norris.<\/p>\n
That equated to just 74 centimetres around the 4.259-kilometre circuit.<\/p>\n
The ball is now back in Norris\u2019s court to respond.<\/p>\n
WHY NORRIS SAYS HE\u2019LL NEED \u2018MAGIC\u2019 TO BEAT TEAMMATE<\/p>\n
Norris kept his disappointment in check following qualifying, insisting that it had been close between him and this teammate all weekend \u2014 enough that tiny circumstances were always going to sway the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tricky with the wind; it can easily just favour you or not favour you,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd yeah, 0.01 seconds is pretty minimal.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing out of the last corner, I\u2019m a little bit up and I lose like 0.02 seconds by the time I get to the start-finish line, and that\u2019s pole position gone for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like I\u2019ve dominated it, I\u2019ve just been ever so slightly ahead and it\u2019s just switched the other way around for quali.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not too much to complain about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zandvoort is one of the season\u2019s most sought-after pole positions. This old-school, narrow, non-stop circuit makes overtaking very difficult, so much so that every pole-getter at this track has won the race since it returned to the calendar in 2021.<\/p>\n
If the trend continues, those 74 centimetres will turn into a seven-point swing in Piastri\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n
Of course Norris had to make an overtake to win the race last year, having lost first place off the line to Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n
But the Briton expected it to be much more difficult \u2014 perhaps too difficult \u2014 to do the same against the sister car.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Verstappen] was in a much slower car last year,\u201d he said \u201cOscar\u2019s in a much quicker car this year, and the hardest guy to normally overtake is your teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s normally pretty difficult to overtake in the first place. It\u2019s even harder to do that behind your teammate, so I\u2019ll see what I can dream of tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to take some magic, some good strategy or incredible tyre saving or something.\u201d<\/p>\n
This normally isn\u2019t a track conducive to wild strategy gambles. The difficulty overtaking means the one-stop is preferred, reducing the chance of dropping among slower cars.<\/p>\n
But this year Pirelli has brought softer tyres, and the pit lane speed limit has been increased to 80 kilometres per hour.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not game changers, but it\u2019s enough to make the two-stop strategy theoretically faster so long as a driver can avoid losing time in traffic.<\/p>\n
The McLaren drivers are rare among the leaders to have saved two sets of hard tyres \u2014 albeit one of which has been lightly used \u2014 to go with their one set of mediums, making a two-stop possible. Most others have just one set apiece of the favoured mediums and hards.<\/p>\n
If the McLaren drivers sprint up the road to a healthy early advantage, could one of them roll the dice on an alternative strategy? Could that be the magic Norris needs?<\/p>\n
Team boss Andrea Stella was coy about what sort of strategy freedom the drivers would have.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to the options from a strategic point of view in between our two drivers, we do have some rules for that,\u201d he said, per Autosport. \u201cI\u2019m not going to share what rules they are, but whatever you have seen so far in terms of how the strategy has been utilised, it\u2019s always been within our rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
We know already that the team is open to allowing one driver to build an offset on the other, as Piastri attempted at the first stop in Austria. Different compounds are also allowed, as was the case in Belgium.<\/p>\n
In Hungary the team allowed Norris to try a one-stop strategy that proved successful, though it wasn\u2019t targeted at beating Piastri. It\u2019s unclear whether that would be allowed if McLaren drivers were running one-two. Perhaps we\u2019ll find out on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Whatever the case, whichever driver is leading in the first stint will get priority and the chance to influence what follows.<\/p>\n
It puts massive importance on the first corner, after which overtaking is much more difficult.<\/p>\n
Russell and Piastri clash in the pits | 00:32<\/p>\n
VERSTAPPEN A THREAT FROM THIRD, SHARES ROW WITH OTHER TEAMMATE<\/p>\n
While McLaren will likely be too fast for any other driver to beat them on pure pace, both drivers could be vulnerable to losing track position at the start, especially with Verstappen starting third.<\/p>\n
Verstappen has only one medium and one hard available to him, but unusually he also has one fresh set of softs in his cache too.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman might use the extra grip of the softs in the first stint to try to get ahead of at least one of the McLaren cars off the line, knowing that the difficulty overtaking will make it easier for him to manage the soft tyre to the required pit stop window.<\/p>\n
But Verstappen performing well at home is unremarkable \u2014 he\u2019s won this race three times and last year finished second in a car that should\u2019ve finished third.<\/p>\n
Far more remarkable is the Red Bull driver who will line up alongside him on the second row \u2014 though it\u2019s not his teammate.<\/p>\n
Isack Hadjar will start a career-best fourth on the grid after a superb first qualifying session back from the break.<\/p>\n
The French rookie has been a qualifying standout this year but entered into a minor funk before the adjournment. Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson, himself resurgent, had become a much closer match and in fact had finished ahead in the last three races both drivers finished.<\/p>\n
Lawson has scored 16 points from the last four weekends. Hadjar has scored just one.<\/p>\n
So the Racing Bulls driver flying so high \u2014 and after having lost all of FP2 to a power unit problem \u2014 is a massive achievement and an emphatic statement to start the second part of the year.<\/p>\n
It was good enough for the usually self-critical 20-year-old to bask in his result.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy,\u201d he said, per ESPN. \u201cFinally I\u2019m quite satisfied with what I did. It was a good job for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the car being exactly like I wanted. It was responding really well, especially on that final lap.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably we got a bit lucky with the wind gusts \u2014 we need to look at the data \u2014 but I pulled an amazing lap and it sticked because the car was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
But what\u2019s good news for him is bad news for Yuki Tsunoda.<\/p>\n
Tsunoda started the weekend confident that he was on the up. He\u2019d been given his targets by Red Bull Racing management to keep his seat, and though he was adrift of Verstappen through the practice sessions, the deficit looked like a manageable 0.3 seconds.<\/p>\n
That margin would have got him into Q3.<\/p>\n
Instead Tsunoda was knocked out 12th, his deficit to Verstappen back out to 0.5 seconds.<\/p>\n
Correcting for circuit length, it was his biggest deficit to his teammate since the Spanish Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
And in an alarming return to his response to that Spanish Grand Prix gap, Tsunoda admitted to not understanding where the difference was being made.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to see where I can improve,\u201d he said. \u201cI was pretty happy with the lap, to be honest, so it\u2019s pretty tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll try my best to score points \u2014 at least it\u2019s not too far away.\u201d<\/p>\n
A look at the telemetry suggests Tsunoda\u2019s problem could be related to tyre preparation. He was faster than Verstappen through the first three corners and pretty much level at the end of the first sector but begins losing time through the high-speed corners and appears to have nothing left to give for the rest of the lap.<\/p>\n
Keeping the RB21\u2019s tyres under control has been an issue for the Japanese driver at previous races.<\/p>\n
But whatever the case, it\u2019s a first chance blown to assert his hold on his seat. Hadjar has firmed as the driver who will step up if Red Bull Racing shuffles the deck at the end of the season, and the Frenchman\u2019s superb fourth will have only boosted that position.<\/p>\n
Tsunoda will have to score points \u2014 which would be his first since finishing 10th at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix back in May, eight races ago \u2014 to salvage this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri\u2019s fifth pole position of the season sees him draw first blood in the closing chapter of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[25610,2095,13273,64,63,689,24916,3159,2071,77364,2065,31300,22786,21766,77363,77366,77354,77360,77357,73231,11301,77356,800,2057,817,36333,22756,813,816,77347,54344,77346,2105,841,939,77349,75915,1737,77350,3352,77344,825,16255,2041,2067,677,24586,77368,77355,31299,16280,18250,77365,33108,77342,13777,77359,77358,24579,77348,85,77352,77362,77343,77361,77367,31298,77351,77353,36244,77345,2062],"class_list":["post-107914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-alternative-strategy","tag-america","tag-andrea-stella","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-star","tag-austria","tag-belgium","tag-bounce-back-race","tag-canada","tag-championship-battle","tag-championship-deficit","tag-championship-run-in","tag-circuit-length","tag-comprehensive-performance","tag-decisive-getting-back","tag-difficulty-overtaking","tag-drivers-sprint","tag-dutch-grand","tag-eastern-europe","tag-emphatic-statement","tag-espn-inc","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-final-lap","tag-final-sector","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-french-rookie","tag-front-row","tag-game-changers","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-grand-prix","tag-hungary","tag-james-sutton","tag-japanese-driver","tag-lando-norris","tag-lane-speed-limit","tag-liam-lawson","tag-losing-time","tag-max-verstappen","tag-netherlands","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-parc-ferme","tag-pinches-pole","tag-pit-lane-speed","tag-pit-stop-window","tag-pole-position","tag-pole-position-qualifier","tag-power-unit-problem","tag-practice-sessions","tag-predetermined-pole-position","tag-qualifying-session","tag-required-pit-stop","tag-shares-row","tag-sister-car","tag-sought-after-pole-positions","tag-sports","tag-start-finish-line","tag-strategic-point","tag-strategy-freedom","tag-strategy-gambles","tag-talking-pts","tag-title-battle","tag-track-position","tag-two-stop-possible","tag-two-stop-strategy","tag-weekend-confident","tag-western-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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