Zandvoort (the Netherlands), Aug 22 (IANS) Lando Norris denied the Sprint race winner George Russell and seized a spectacular pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix on Saturday. In the qualifying session conducted under the threat of rain, the McLaren driver edged out Mercedes’ Russell and Kimi Antonelli in the final minutes, giving the day a spectacular ending.

With the skies turning grey, Norris braved one more lap as the weather worsened at the Circuit Zandvoort, earning the top spot with a time of 1m 11.163s in a tense conclusion to the session.

While the McLaren driver comprehensively beat Russell by a tenth, the Mercedes pair were extremely close as they took P2 and P3, with Oscar Piastri securing P4 after he looked like the fastest driver on track for the majority of Qualifying.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were next on the timesheets, ahead of Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson, who wasn’t far off the lead Red Bull, while Gabriel Bortoleto and Arvid Lindblad completed the top 10.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly came the closest to making it into Q3, but lost out by less than a tenth and qualified ahead of his former teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who was 0.102s adrift of the lead Red Bull car upon his return to the grid.

Nico Hulkenberg wound up P13 for Audi, leading the second Alpine of Franco Colapinto, Haas’ Esteban Ocon and Williams’ Alex Albon.

In another frustrating session for Sainz, he was eliminated from Q1 with a tiny deficit of 0.022s to his teammate, settling for P17 from Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, who are yet to extract the most from their upgraded power unit.

Ollie Bearman was another to be outqualified by his Haas counterpart as he was knocked out in P20, where he will line up just in front of Cadillac drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.

--IANS

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