Dutch GP Qualifying: F1 Teams & Drivers report from Zandvoort

In the 34th running of the GP at the seaside venue, Lando Norris secured his fourth Formula 1 pole position in dominant fashion, outpacing Max Verstappen by over three-tenths on the local hero's home track, with Oscar Piastri taking third.

McLaren's MCL38, benefiting from its second major upgrade, proved superior throughout the weekend, and Norris delivered a stellar second lap in Q3. With McLaren also demonstrating strong race pace, Red Bull and Verstappen, the triple F1 champion, faces a tough challenge to secure a win on race day.

This is what was said on Saturday after Qualy in Holland:

P9. Lance Stroll: "I had a really strong Q2, putting in a purple first sector and finishing that session in P4. I couldn't quite replicate that during my one push lap in Q3 though. I was pushing hard but got a bit out of shape. Still, two cars in Q3 is a good result for the team. The changes we made ahead of Qualifying have been positive and we managed the session well. We have some faster cars behind us tomorrow, but it can be tough to overtake here so we should be able to fight for some good points from P9."

P7. Fernando Alonso: "I am happy with my Qualifying today and both cars in Q3 is a positive result for us. It felt like a lottery sometimes out on track depending on how gusty it was, particularly in Turns 9 and 10. I wasn't too comfortable in Q1 and Q2, but in the end I was happy with my lap in Q3. I felt like it was the maximum we could achieve today.

Team Principal, Mike Krack: "It's great to be back on track here in Zandvoort as we start the second half of the 2024 F1 season. Variable conditions have kept us on our toes so far this weekend at this coastal location. We've put together a positive qualifying session together this afternoon in a very close competition. Both Lance and Fernando drove really well to get both cars through into Q3. It is always our target to get both cars starting in the Top 10 and we've achieved that today. Lance in particular had a monster lap in Q2 to secure the fourth-fastest time. It will be a long race tomorrow but from P7 and P9 we can race to bring home a strong points finish in front of this wonderful crowd and electric atmosphere. Sunday, the weather looks clear, so we will need to execute a good race and battle hard to keep some fast cars behind us."

P14. Esteban Ocon: “It has been a disappointing weekend so far. I have been struggling with the car set-up here, no matter what the conditions were and just had very poor grip. So unfortunately, I was just not able to put a quick enough lap together today. We need to ensure we put ourselves in a solid position and that we can keep the positive momentum going from before the summer break. We will be in a difficult position on the grid tomorrow to get to where we want to be, considering I will start from P17 and the nature of the track here in Zandvoort. Hopefully, we can extract some useful data from the running today, learn from it and give it our all tomorrow where we aim to be more competitive.”

P17. Pierre Gasly: “I’m very pleased with today’s effort. Before Qualifying, it was clear that we would have a challenge on our hands to progress through Q1 and into Q2, especially after a tough Friday Practice. In the end, we reached Q3 so I’m happy with that. We almost extracted the maximum from the car. We missed a little bit of lap time in Q3 but, even so, we’re inside the top 10 and we have put ourselves in a good position to fight for points in the race. We know we have a battle tomorrow with Lewis [Hamilton] and Carlos [Sainz] starting behind us. It’s going to be a tough race but we will be ready for it. We just need to try and hang onto some of the cars starting ahead of us. If we can score points that will be great and that is the aim.”

Julian Rouse, Sporting Director: “We have made a good step forward since yesterday’s Practice. We’ve built positive momentum through the weekend where, in the end, we have one car reach Q3 and in contention to score points in the race. Our competitiveness is in line with previous races where we brought upgrades to the car, and we must keep learning and keep developing in order to continue progress. While we’ve seen some interesting conditions over the past few days here in Zandvoort, tomorrow’s weather looks more stable. We will assess our options on strategy in order to give ourselves the best chance to score points. Our eyes are firmly forwards and racing our closest rivals.”

P15. Nico Hulkenberg: “It was tough in quali and the wind really picked-up again in the afternoon, but it was the first clean run I’d had this weekend. Every other session I’ve had has been interrupted, and it’s been a very difficult build-up to qualifying. Now at least, I’ve produced good clean laps and that was actually pretty decent. I’m not too unhappy with how qualifying went but obviously you always have the feeling that because we missed so much yesterday, we’re a step behind chasing. Tomorrow’s going to be challenging as I didn’t have much practice, so I’ll just have to see how the car feels, react correctly, and make the most of it.”

P13. Kevin Magnussen: “I’m slightly disappointed, I think we had a feeling we’d be slightly better. We fell at the rear of that little group between P10 and P15 unfortunately, so it’s still possible to do something tomorrow but it will require good pace, but hopefully we’ll have that. It’s so close, hopefully things swing our way and we’ll get an opportunity. P15 makes it harder tomorrow, but there’s still points to play for.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: “The qualifying result was obviously very disappointing. Kevin had reasonably good preparation throughout the practice sessions and his first Q2 run was good, but on his final run he couldn’t improve, so that was very disappointing. Nico was on the backfoot because he went off several times during practice, so we ran Nico on three new sets of tires in Q1 to get him started. I feel like he was so much on the backfoot and with everyone in qualifying being so tight, if you’re that far behind you have no chance. Comparing laps, I think the cut-off around Q3 is where we should be, so I don’t think we’ve maximized our performance. It’s tricky for the race as it’s difficult to overtake here, but we’ll work overnight to see what we can do tomorrow.”

Team Report: Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber struggled in windy conditions in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix, with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu setting the 18th and 19th times of the session respectively. It was a tough day for the team, which means a strong comeback will be required in tomorrow’s race: Zandvoort, however, is known to produce surprising races, and the team will give its best effort to improve on its starting position when the Grand Prix starts here in the Netherlands.

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "We experienced a day in which conditions changed significantly between FP3 and qualifying. FP3 was a session with little on-track action, as we spent most of the time in the garage following the red flag before making a few laps on Intermediate tyres under wet conditions. On that track, the car balance felt quite ok; however, once it had fully dried for qualifying, we weren’t able to find a good balance throughout the lap. Both Valtteri and Zhou struggled, especially in sectors two and three, and we weren’t able to extract the needed performance from our car. We need to analyse why we weren’t able to keep up with track evolution from FP3 and why we struggled so much with corner balance in sectors two and three. There is a lot of work to do and, unfortunately, we have to start in a similar position to where we were in the last two races. We must understand, all together as a team, how to find the optimal balance on track configurations that feature a mix of low- and medium-speed corners, as well as why we’re seeing inconsistent performance across different conditions. Tomorrow’s starting positions are definitely difficult, but we’ll do everything to try and grab any opportunity that may arise. It’s not the end of the weekend – but a difficult day, and we’re here together to overcome the situation for tomorrow.”

P18. Valtteri Bottas: “When you look at the results from today’s qualifying, it’s clear that it’s not where we want to be – we want to keep making progress: this weekend, however, has proved tricky for us so far and today was no exception. This morning, the car had felt better in less breezy conditions, but as soon as the wind picked up, it amplified our weaknesses and inconsistencies, and we struggled with corner balance. Our car can be quite sensitive but, despite some traffic at the end of the lap, I feel we got out all we could from it. Tomorrow will not be easy, but this sport always throws you a chance, so we won’t give up and we will go in fighting. We know it will be hard to climb to the points, especially with overtaking being difficult, but this has to be our objective.”

P19. Zhou Guanyu: “Today was quite frustrating, with a tricky qualifying session. So far this weekend, the car has been feeling good and it felt like things were coming together for me. We noticed a lack of performance in high-fuel runs yesterday, so we made some setup changes to address that; however, it looks like the direction we took resulted in a slower single-lap pace – something we definitely need to investigate. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to push the car as much as I wanted and started struggling with my tyres after turning three on each lap: we’ll need to keep analysing and addressing our issues to be better prepared for tomorrow. While this hasn’t been our track in the past as a team, we’ll keep working hard to get the most out of tomorrow’s race.”