Piastri: Pole winning lap the definition of peaking at the right time

Piastri was behind Norris in all three practice sessions but produced the pace when it mattered in Qualifying at Zandvoort on Saturday, to beat his McLaren teammate by .012 of a second.

The Australian said after qualifying at Zandvoort on Saturday: "That was the definition of peaking at the right time. I think the whole weekend I’ve felt pretty good, but it’s just been a couple of corners that I’ve not been able to go any faster.

"I didn’t really go any faster in those corners, but I found some more elsewhere! So, yeah, super happy to come out with the result. Obviously, you’ve still got all the points tomorrow, but yeah, it was looking like a little bit of a tricky weekend so far, so to come out with that, I’m pretty stoked."

Regaring the race on Sunday, Piastri said: "The tyre strategies from everyone are a bit different. I think us two are one of the only teams to have two Hards and a Medium. I think pretty much everyone else has just one Hard and one Medium.

"So, we’ve got that kind of up our sleeve, but it also kind of tells you a little bit of what most people are thinking, I guess. So, we’ll wait and see, but we’ve got some options available," said Piastri, who leads Norris by nine points in the standings but the Briton has won three of the last four races.

The Dutch Grand Prix could see the fifth one-two finish in a row for McLaren, which is running away with the constructors' title with more than double the points total of any other team.

Max Verstappen starts his home race third for Red Bull and has a history of success in front of his home crowd. "To see so much orange on the grandstand, it´s always very special," Verstappen said Saturday.

He's third in the standings, too, but his chances of defending the title seem to have gone. Verstappen is 97 points off Piastri. Last year, Norris won the race by a comfortable margin off 22 seconds over Max, with Oscar P4 that day.

Verstappen won the first three GPs at Zandvoort to mark the return of the circuit to the F1 calendar after an absence since 1985, the local hero's streak broken by Norris last year. Piastri's turn today?