Lando Norris feels it's "nice to know there's a possibility" he could stay in the battle to retain his Formula 1 world championship, after taking pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.

The McLaren driver produced a dominant race victory in the final race before the sport's summer break in Hungary and made it two successive pole positions by topping qualifying in Zandvoort on Saturday. Norris edged out the Mercedes of George Russell for pole, with championship leader Kimi Antonelli having to settle for third behind his team-mate.

Norris' pole came after he had reduced his deficit to championship leader Antonelli to 90 points by finishing ahead of the Mercedes driver in the Sprint earlier on Saturday. Antonelli leads Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton at the top of the standings by 53 points, with Sprint winner Russell a further three points back. Norris, who's fifth in the standings, also trails Ferrari's Charles Leclerc by 11 points.

"There's no point in thinking about it. Just focus on tomorrow. I honestly don't care what I'm doing next weekend or the weekend after," Norris said. "It's nice to know there's a possibility."

Referencing McLaren's disqualification from last year's Las Vegas Grand Prix and a strategic error at Qatar, Norris plotted his own 2026 comeback. "Of course, I'm hoping both Mercedes get a double DSQ in Vegas like we did and decide not to box in Qatar for a free pit stop," Norris said. "So, as long as they make the same mistakes, it'll probably be just as easy, but every year is different.

"For me, we're still trying to play catch up with certain things, but I'm getting everything out of it for now and that's all I can be pleased about. I'm happy. It's still a very long way to go. I'm optimistic. I still believe that it's possible and that's all I need for now."

Russell: Title mine to gain, not lose

Russell, who must leapfrog Norris on Sunday to complete a Sprint-Grand Prix double in Zandvoort, believes he is benefiting from his position in the championship having removed pressure. The 28-year-old started the season as the clear title favourite but has been surprisingly outperformed by Antonelli.

"After the break, I just feel way more relaxed. I don't feel I've got anything to lose. The pressure's off. I'm just going to go out, enjoy it," Russell said. "I don't even really feel in a fight. It's not mine to lose, it's mine to gain. That's the mentality I've got, and I feel it's going to help me. I'm just enjoying driving."

Despite his change in mindset, Russell shared his belief that the title race could swing very quickly over the 11 remaining rounds. "There's more points on offer from this point until the end of the season than we've had so far," Russell said. "It changes so, so quick. We already saw it earlier in the season - at one point I was almost 70 points down, got within 25, went up to 60. It's ebbs and flows and it's far from over. Long way to go."

Antonelli: Weekend has been a wake-up call

While Antonelli could quite easily end the weekend with a bigger title lead than he begun it with, the Italian is already describing it as a "wake-up call" for him. Antonelli made an error in the first part of Sprint Qualifying on Friday that damaged his car, contributing to him only managing fifth on the grid, before he finished the Sprint in fourth.

"I don't feel any extra pressure, but it was a very good wake-up call this weekend, that you can never lower your guard," Antonelli said. "Because when you do that, I did a mistake yesterday and today I did a mistake in Q3. It's not that I'm driving more tense or anything, but it's just I feel this weekend is a good wake-up call and to just, again, put things in the right place at the right time and just deliver the result when it counts."

Hamilton optimistic despite third-row start

Lewis Hamilton believes his Ferrari car is in a "better place" after changes going into Dutch Grand Prix qualifying and that the team can still be "optimistic" for Sunday's race despite starting on the third row. Fifth-fastest Hamilton and sixth-fastest Charles Leclerc will start behind both Mercedes and McLaren cars for a race that Norris starts on pole.

"Much different session, much different car," said Hamilton, who pipped Leclerc to the head of the third row with his final lap of Q3. "In Practice, the car felt great and was consistent but there are always areas you feel you can improve so we made subtle changes to try and fix those improvements and it flipped the car on its head and it was horrible through Sprint Qualifying and the Sprint. We made all these changes into Qualifying so I was learning a new car again, a new balance which I'm much happier with.

"Also all the Mercedes [powered cars] are ahead and we know we have a bit of a deficit on power so I think our race pace should be better and the car is better for the race."

But fifth on the grid represented a step forward for Hamilton compared to the earlier Sprint sessions when he had qualified and finished seventh. "I feel optimistic. Fifth is not the greatest but it could be far worse, so I'm grateful to be there," he said. "However, our race pace was good in the Sprint. Charles had good race pace and the car is in a better place. Hopefully with the right strategy and right execution I think hopefully we can challenge the cars ahead."

What went wrong for Leclerc?

Leclerc's overtake on Norris for second place with six laps to go in the Sprint had proved a relative surprise given he had been the only one of the front runners to run the race on the soft tyres. He had therefore been tipped to contend for pole but never ultimately appeared a contender in any of the three knockout sections.

"I don't think the conditions played a role. I think we changed the power strategies a bit too much throughout qualifying then in Q3 I had some weird things going on, so we lost a bit of performance there," said Leclerc. "At no time during qualifying [did I have] the potential of pole." Dropped to sixth on Sunday's grid thanks to Hamilton's late improvement, Leclerc added: "Realistically it will be very difficult to overtake on track but we will do our best and see where we end up. Starting from sixth doesn't make our life easy, so it will be a tough race but the pace is there so I hope we can do something with strategy."

Team principal Frederic Vasseur took heart from their Sprint performance and said the fact the race was likely to be a multi-stop affair could play in their favour. "The race pace in the Sprint was very strong so we will try to come back," said the Frenchman. "It's very difficult to overtake. It will probably be two or three pit stops which mean everything is open." He also confirmed the latest SF-26 upgrades, including a new floor, were performing as expected: "It's working as per the plan."