McLaren edges Mercedes in wet-threatened Q3

Lando Norris seized a spectacular pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix under the threat of rain, edging out Mercedes’ George Russell and Kimi Antonelli in the final minutes of qualifying at Circuit Zandvoort.

The McLaren driver braved one more lap as the weather worsened, earning the top spot with a time of 1m 11.163s. He comprehensively beat Russell by a tenth, with Antonelli third, while team-mate Oscar Piastri secured fourth after looking the fastest driver on track for much of qualifying.

Driver reflects on turnaround

Norris admitted he was "a little surprised" by the result after struggling earlier in the day following his P2 finish behind Charles Leclerc in the Sprint.

"It doesn’t get any better. A little surprised honestly but, yeah, a decent lap," Norris said. "I was pushing because you see how close it is, so you know every one hundredth, two hundredths can make a big difference in the end. But just a good turnaround, a good turnaround from earlier today where I felt like we struggled a little bit. Today we certainly felt very strong. The team did a good job, so credit to them on trying to get a little bit more out of the car and it certainly helped me today."

Asked about changes between Sprint and Qualifying, Norris said: "We had to try something because what we had before wasn't going to be enough. We made some small changes, nothing that was going to make us gain two tenths or one tenth even, but enough to maybe give me a little more confidence. On a track like Zandvoort, you need good confidence in the car and you want to attack a lot, so I felt like I could do that more today and it paid off."

Piastri was also happy with his Q3 performance, calling it a natural session despite settling for fourth behind the Mercedes pair. "I feel like my lap was pretty good. I don’t have any major complaints, I just need to keep chipping away," he said.