Max Verstappen narrowly edged out Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for pole position in the Dutch Grand Prix.
In front of his hometown crowd, Verstappen wheeled his Red Bull machine around Circuit Zandvoort to take the pole by 0.021 seconds.
“Unbelievable! We had a difficult day yesterday, the whole team worked really hard over night to turn it around and we recovered well,” Verstappen said. “Again, today we had a quick car and it was enjoyable to drive; a qualifying lap around here feels insane. I know it’s going to be close during the race, but I think if we make the right calls on tires and execute it well, we should stand a good chance tomorrow.
“The atmosphere is amazing here, I hope the fans are having a great time, I really can feel the support and I can hear them all around the track.”
Behind the front two, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz slotted in third, with Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton qualifying fourth.
Rounding out the top-five in qualifying was Sergio Perez.
“I was pushing it to the limit on the final lap of Q3 and I just went over the limit a little, it’s a shame,” Perez said. “I went a bit too hot into the final corner and in the end I was lucky not to damage the car. I touched the throttle too early; I just kissed the gravel and unfortunately, I lost the rear end. I was on a good lap and could have improved quite a bit but we lost out.
“We are still P5 though and we can race from there but it will be very important to have a strong race pace. We have made positive changes to the car since yesterday and we are on the right track, this morning the long run was positive so Im hopeful to carry that into tomorrow and make up some good positions on the leaders. We think it could be a very close race between us, the Mercedes and the Ferraris, it could be a battle and I am looking forward to it.”
A surprise in Q3 was Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher, who will start in eighth.