{"id":867979,"date":"2026-08-23T00:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T00:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/867979\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T00:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T00:28:09","slug":"lando-norris-surges-past-russell-and-antonelli-to-snatch-dutch-gp-pole-formula-one-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/867979\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris surges past Russell and Antonelli to snatch Dutch GP pole | Formula One 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a title fight Formula One would have on its hands if McLaren could make the final steps with their car. This was demonstrated to dramatic effect on Saturday as Lando Norris<\/a> hurled his ride around Zandvoort to claim pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix. It was a prize secured against the odds and his own expectations, hours after he had bemoaned being in no position to fulfil his hopes of mounting a successful title defence.<\/p>\n

The McLaren car is immensely quick through the fast corners, perhaps the class of the field, but is haemorrhaging time through the slow stuff, the package not quite complete, or suboptimal as Ron Dennis would have had it. Yet Norris managed to eke out its very best across the circuit to see off the Mercedes of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli into second and third place. The season\u2019s dominant car was subdued by Norris in qualifying for the second race in succession, after he took pole in Hungary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day the defending world champion was disgruntled at best with his ride. Russell had won the sprint race with a controlled dominance from pole position, but Norris had gone from second to third, struggling for grip and pace, passed late on by Charles Leclerc. His assessment was blunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the pace in general, slow-speed corners we struggle so much compared to others. There is nothing we can do,\u201d he said. \u201cThe upgrades have all worked and they allowed me to be P3 today, but we need more if we want to be fighting for a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

A turnaround had not been expected, but with fresh tyres and low fuel the McLaren<\/a> was a less recalcitrant beast and Norris delivered a mighty lap in the final runs to see off Russell and Antonelli by a tenth of a second.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur biggest losses were still the same places, the same corners, as it was this morning,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just new tyres, low fuel. It just seems to mask quite a few of our issues and that was probably still the case today. I just drove well, I put a lot of things together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which sets up an intriguing prospect for Sunday\u2019s race. With tyre wear and fat with fuel he will have to fight hard to keep the two Mercedes behind him.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideDutch F1 qualifyingShow<\/p>\n

1 Lando Norris \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 McLaren\u00a0 1:11.163
2 George Russell \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Mercedes 1:11.265
3 Kimi Antonelli \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 Mercedes 1:11.296
4 Oscar Piastri \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa McLaren 1:11.305
5 Lewis Hamilton \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Ferrari 1:11.494
6 Charles Leclerc \ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\udde8 Ferrari 1:11.558
7 Max Verstappen \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddf1 Red Bull 1:11.618
8 Liam Lawson \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 Red Bull 1:11.733
9 Gabriel Bortoleto \ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddf7 Audi 1:12.079
10 Arvid Lindblad \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Racing Bulls 1:12.185<\/p>\n

Q2 eliminations
11 Pierre Gasly \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 Alpine 1:12.616
12 Yuki Tsunoda\u00a0\ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf5\u00a0Racing Bulls 1:12.627
13 Nico H\u00fclkenberg \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea Audi 1:12.797
14 Franco Colapinto \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf7 Alpine 1:12.800
15 Esteban Ocon \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 Haas 1:13.137
16 Alexander Albon \ud83c\uddf9\ud83c\udded Williams 1:13.182<\/p>\n

Q1 eliminations
17 Carlos Sainz \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf8 Williams 1:13.574
18 Fernando Alonso \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf8 Aston Martin 1:13.650
19 Lance Stroll \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 Aston Martin 1:13.818
20 Oliver Bearman \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Haas 1:13.826
21 Valtteri Bottas \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddee Cadillac 1:14.371
22 Sergio P\u00e9rez \ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\uddfd Cadillac 1:14.600<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

With Russell\u2019s sprint victory and Antonelli only fourth, the Briton trails his teammate by 56 points, in third place in the championship. Lewis Hamilton is 53 points back in second and Norris 90 points in arrears.<\/p>\n

Most notable is how much more comfortable Russell has looked in the car this weekend, after struggling with problems around its energy deployment that had left him frustrated and examining his driving style. Having said he intended to drive more instinctively here he came into the weekend confident, took pole and then victory in the sprint race. While he was beaten to pole in qualifying, Russell was quicker than his teammate.<\/p>\n

Certainly he appeared to be enjoying himself once more. \u201cI just feel way more relaxed. I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019ve got anything to lose. The pressure\u2019s off,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just going to go out and enjoy it. I don\u2019t even really feel in a fight. It\u2019s not mine to lose. It\u2019s mine to gain. So that\u2019s the mentality I\u2019ve got, I feel it\u2019s going to help me, I\u2019m just enjoying driving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lando Norris secured his second pole at the Dutch GP and the 18th of his career. Photograph: Clive Rose\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Norris went on to win from pole in Hungary and with Piastri taking the win here last year and Norris in 2024, McLaren may still make it three in a row, which would be a testament to their impressive work. Their car development has been ferocious and most importantly effective, including another swathe of developments brought here, fulfilling the expectations of the team principal, Andrea Stella, whose calm assurance at the helm has once more been a striking piece of management as the team adjusted to the new regulations.<\/p>\n

All of which may yet shake down into a tense title fight and the teenager Antonelli was aware his rivals were watching closely to see how he handles it, a task which comes with the territory. \u201cIt was a very good wake-up call this weekend, that you can never lower your guard,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you do that, I made a mistake yesterday and today I made a mistake in Q3.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that I\u2019m driving more tense or anything but I feel this weekend is a good wake-up call to just put things in the right place at the right time and deliver the result when it counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

It all sets the scene for a showdown beside the North Sea on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What a title fight Formula One would have on its hands if McLaren could make the final steps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-867979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}