Russell will start first in the Sprint at the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix

George Russell put the Mercedes on pole for the Dutch Grand Prix Sprint, with Lando Norris just hundredths behind. Charles Leclerc opened the second row in the Ferrari, as Formula 1 returned from the summer break.

Photo By Mercedes F1

The weekend at Zandvoort begins with Kimi Antonelli leading the drivers' championship but only fifth on the Sprint grid, a position that will require him to overtake Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton to avoid losing ground in the title fight. Antonelli was fastest in the weekend's sole practice session, with Norris and Russell hundredths behind, but a mistake on his first SQ1 lap—when he ran through the gravel and had to abandon the attempt—cost him track time in a qualifying session where he never got back to the top spot.

Russell secured pole on his final SQ3 run, after Norris had already taken provisional first place with a clean lap. The gap between the two cars was minimal, and Leclerc finished just hundredths behind in the Ferrari, in a qualifying session where the three fastest teams of the weekend shared the top positions. Oscar Piastri put the second McLaren in fourth, while Antonelli ended up fifth in the second Mercedes, a few tenths behind his teammate.

This edition of the Dutch Grand Prix is the first to feature a Sprint in its history, and it is also the last under the current calendar format at Zandvoort. The circuit returned to the calendar in 2021 and became one of the most heavily attended events of the year, largely due to the connection between Verstappen and the crowds that come to watch him race in his home country.

Photo By Red Bull Content Pool

Verstappen had a difficult practice session, finishing 11th with balance issues and oversteer in the car, and arrived at qualifying with little certainty about the Red Bull's performance at Zandvoort. He advanced without drama through SQ1 and SQ2, and in SQ3 placed sixth, ahead of Hamilton and behind Antonelli, in what will be his last opportunity to fight for pole at this circuit under the current calendar.

Red Bull also arrives with a change to its lineup. Liam Lawson returned to the senior team after Isack Hadjar suffered an injury during his physical preparation over the break, and had to adapt to the car with barely a weekend's notice. He advanced through SQ1 with a strong time, even ahead of several top championship cars, but in SQ2 he was knocked out by hundredths of a second behind Yuki Tsunoda, who returned to Racing Bulls for the same reason and also failed to advance to SQ3.

Ferrari advanced both cars through each qualifying phase without drama until SQ3, where Hamilton made a small mistake on his final lap and ended up in seventh position. Leclerc, on the other hand, found the pace to place third, with a gap of several tenths between the two Ferrari cars, highlighting the difficulty of finding the car's sweet spot on a track that evolved quickly throughout the session.

Photo By Mclaren

McLaren arrived at Zandvoort with new updates on the car, and both Norris and Piastri made use of them throughout the weekend. Norris was second in practice and came close to taking pole in SQ3. Piastri, who also finished among the top six in practice, closed qualifying in fourth position.

In the midfield, Gabriel Bortoleto advanced to SQ3 and placed inside the top ten even though Audi did not bring new parts to the circuit, a departure from what most teams did, as they introduced technical changes for the return from the break. Pierre Gasly joined Bortoleto in that final phase with Alpine's new package, and Arvid Lindblad closed out the top ten for Racing Bulls.

Left out of that final phase were Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, Franco Colapinto, Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon, and Alexander Albon, all eliminated in SQ2 by very narrow margins.

Eliminated in the first phase of qualifying were Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Pérez, and Fernando Alonso. Sainz came off a difficult Friday, with floor damage during practice that affected his balance throughout the session. Alonso also had an issue with the DRS mode on his rear wing, which cost him straight-line speed throughout qualifying.

The Sprint takes place on Saturday and awards points from first to eighth. That result does not set the Grand Prix grid, as the traditional qualifying session follows later, which will determine the starting order for Sunday's race over 72 laps of the 4.259-kilometer circuit.

Sprint Qualifying

Pos.	No.	driver	team	SQ1	SQ2	SQ3
1	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:13.278	1:12.235	1:11.567
2	1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:13.071	1:12.189	1:11.608
3	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:13.011	1:12.190	1:11.622
4	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:13.126	1:12.026	1:11.666
5	12	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	1:13.668	1:12.511	1:11.794
6	3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:13.585	1:12.771	1:12.094
7	44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	1:13.151	1:12.445	1:12.191
8	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:13.977	1:12.720	1:12.578
9	5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	1:13.730	1:12.786	1:12.583
10	41	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	1:14.057	1:12.785	1:12.737
11	30	Liam Lawson	Red Bull Racing	1:13.420	1:13.136
12	22	Yuki Tsunoda	Racing Bulls	1:14.490	1:13.145
13	43	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	1:14.618	1:13.439
14	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	1:14.284	1:13.616
15	31	Esteban Ocon	Haas F1 Team	1:14.503	1:13.893
16	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:14.596	1:14.294
17	87	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	1:14.728
18	55	Carlos Sainz	Williams	1:14.738
19	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:15.391
20	77	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	1:15.472
21	11	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	1:15.545
22	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:16.014