2026 Dutch Grand Prix Qualifying Review

Linus O'Howell
21 minutes ago
3 min read

After a horrendous Sprint earlier in the day, Qualifying felt more crucial than ever before ahead of the final Dutch Grand Prix!

Q1

In Qualifying 1, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll, Oliver Bearman, Valtteri Bottas, and Sergio Perez were the six slowest drivers! Carlos Sainz will be disappointed to have missed out on a place in Q2 by just 22 thousandths of a second (to his teammate no less), whilst Aston Martin’s hope of improving was quickly dashed as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll could only manage P18 and P19 respectively! Oliver Bearman, who’s struggling a bit recently, could only manage 20th, whilst it’ll be an all-Cadillac back row for tomorrow’s Grand Prix, with Valtteri Bottas outqualifying Sergio Perez! Speaking of Cadillac, it does feel like Bottas is starting to get the better of Checo, or at least more than he was to begin with! Oscar Piastri managed to top Q1 for McLaren, with Lewis Hamilton slotting behind in second!

Q2

In Qualifying 2, Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hulkenberg, Franco Colapinto, Esteban Ocon, and Alex Albon all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! After being best-of-the-rest so far this weekend, Pierre Gasly wasn’t even able to make it into Q3 in his Alpine, whilst Yuki Tsunoda did a very good job to end up just a tenth slower than his Racing Bulls teammate! Nico Hulkenberg could only manage P13 for Audi, ahead of the other Alpine of Franco Colapinto (there was only 3 thousandths of a second separating these two), whilst Esteban Ocon once again beat Alex Albon to win out as the best driver from the bottom 4 teams! This is much better from Ocon! It was a McLaren 1-2 in Q2, with Lando Norris just 13 thousandths quicker than Piastri!

Q3

In Qualifying 3, a clutch 1:11.163 was enough for Lando Norris to take his second consecutive Grand Prix Pole Position! When it looked like the rain was going to come down, Lando delivered the lap, but now it’s going to be fascinating to see if McLaren have improved when it comes to Race pace! George Russell was satisfied with P2, with him lining up just ahead of teammate and Championship Rival Andrea Kimi Antonelli, whilst Oscar Piastri once again came out on the wrong side of a tight Quali session! Lewis Hamilton came out of nowhere to pip Charles Leclerc to P5 in an all-Ferrari third row, whilst Red Bull locked out the fourth row as Liam Lawson was only a tenth and a bit behind Max Verstappen! Brilliant job by The Kiwi! Gabriel Bortoleto managed to win the best-of-the-rest battle to qualify P9, whilst Arvid Lindblad will start from 10th for the second time this weekend!