2025 F1 Dutch Grand Prix - Qualifying Results: Oscar Piastri takes pole

Oscar Piastri beats Lando Norris to pole position at the 2025 F1 Dutch Grand Prix.

Piastri turns tables on Norris

Piastri edged out McLaren teammate and F1 title rival Norris to claim pole position at Zandvoort. 

Norris appeared favourite for pole after topping every session leading up to Q3, but Piastri turned the tables on his teammate when it mattered most with a sublime lap to bag top spot by just 0.012s. 

Neither driver could improve on their times during the final runs of Q3 as Piastri secured his first pole since the Spanish Grand Prix in June. 

Home hero Max Verstappen secured third on the grid for Red Bull, while Isack Hadjar produced a stunning lap to snatch fourth ahead of Mercedes' George Russell. 

Charles Leclerc pipped Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton to sixth, while the second Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson took eighth.

Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso completed the top-10 for Williams and Aston Martin respectively. 

Kimi Antonelli will line up a disappointing 11th on the grid after the Mercedes rookie failed to progress into Q3.

Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda also dropped out in the second part of qualifying in 12th, ahead of Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who set an identical lap time to the Japanese driver who seals the higher grid spot courtesy of completing his effort first.

Pierre Gasly was 14th for Alpine ahead of Alex Albon, who was left hugely frustrated with the slowest time in Q2 as he was unable to join Williams teammate Sainz in the top-10.

Alpine’s Franco Colapinto exited in Q1 with a time only good enough for 16th, ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and the Haas pair of Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman.

Lance Stroll will start 20th and last after suffering his second big crash in as many days.

The Canadian spun into the barriers at the final corner after dipping his wheel onto the grass, resulting in significant damage to his Aston Martin car which ended his qualifying early. 

Max Verstappen's home success 

Verstappen is the most successful driver at the Dutch Grand Prix of the current crop, with three wins on home soil. Only Jim Clark has more (four, all from the 1960s).

A year ago, McLaren’s Norris claimed pole to end Verstappen’s streak of three-in-a-row.

Zandvoort returned as a revamped circuit in 2021 after years away from Formula 1.

It will remain until next year but, in 2027, it will disappear from the F1 calendar after promoters opted against remaining.

“I was talking to the drivers and asking them about this track,” Sky Sports’ Rachel Brookes said. “Their eyes lit up because of the fast-flowing nature of it, the corners, the challenge.”

Jacques Villeneuve replied: “It seems fun to drive. I wish I was driving it.

“It is a rollercoaster. The first half is ‘the old track’, then you get to ‘the new track’.

“For a modern track, it is fun, fast, flowing.

“For drivers willing to go for it, to take a risk, it can make the difference.”

Villeneuve said about Norris and Piastri’s F1 title battle on Friday: “They both seem to prefer to be the hunter.

“Lando has been much stronger lately, Oscar had a spell, they keep rebalancing each other. That is what’s fun.

“We don’t know who will arrive to the last race in front of the other, who will be the hunter and who will be the prey.”