2026 Dutch Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying Review

Linus O'Howell
1 day ago
2 min read

Formula 1 was back for the first-ever Sprint Qualifying session around Zandvoort!

SQ1

In Sprint Qualifying 1, Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez, and Fernando Alonso were the six slowest drivers! Oliver Bearman didn’t do a particularly good job, finishing a couple of tenths slower than his Haas teammate, whilst almost the exact same thing could be said for the Williams of Carlos Sainz! Lance Stroll was miles behind the rest in P19, ahead of the two Cadillacs of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, whilst Fernando Alonso qualified last after issues with his Aston Martin (so much for being improved)! Charles Leclerc topped Q1 for Ferrari, with Lando Norris just 6 hundredths back!

SQ2

In Sprint Qualifying 2, Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, Franco Colapinto, Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon, and Alex Albon all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! Whilst not making it into Q3 in a Red Bull is disappointing, Liam Lawson should be satisfied with his first day back driving the main car, whilst Yuki Tsunoda did pretty well to line up alongside him in his return to the sport! A less-upgraded Alpine meant Franco Colapinto could only manage 13th, ahead of a very disappointing Nico Hulkenberg, whilst Esteban Ocon managed to beat Alex Albon in the other Haas VS Williams battle! Good job from both men for outqualifying their teammates! It was a McLaren 1-2 in SQ2, with Oscar Piastri holding the advantage over Lando Norris!

SQ3

In Sprint Qualifying 3, a 1:11.567 was enough for George Russell to take Sprint Pole on Formula 1’s return! This is exactly the start to the weekend that George needed; now he just needs to finish it off! Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, and Oscar Piastri will start second, third, and fourth respectively, but the reason why I’m grouping them all together is because the Top 4 were separated by less than a tenth of a second! Crazy! Championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be disappointed with P5, whilst Max Verstappen splits the current Top 2 in the standings as Lewis Hamilton could only manage 7th! Speaking of Lewis, to be comfortably 5 tenths slower than your teammate is never good! Pierre Gasly managed to win the best-of-the-rest battle, pipping Gabriel Bortoleto by just 5 thousandths of a second, whilst Arvid Lindblad completed the Top 10!