One step away from pole
The first Sprint qualifying after the 2026 world championship summer break ended with a front row entirely taken by English drivers; while George Russell set the best time on the Zandvoort circuit, the reigning world champion Lando Norris narrowly missed pole position by only 41 thousandths of a second, with the top four classified less than a tenth behind the #63 Mercedes.
Read more Russell: “So I remember how to drive…”
Partially satisfied
A fight for the first grid spot therefore very intense, with Norris expressing a mix of happiness and disappointment for the result obtained: “I’m reasonably happy, it’s still a good position – he commented to the official F1 channels – it was a decent lap, and considering how close I got I could have easily been first, but also fourth or fifth. It was still a good qualifying, which was exactly what we expected, but I’m a bit disappointed because I came second instead of first, I was really very close“.
A performance that therefore highlights the car’s potential, with Norris appearing charged and motivated for the rest of the weekend: “With the switch to softs there was more grip and I managed to fully exploit it – he continued – in the switch from mediums to softs maybe I could have pushed a bit more, but aside from that the car went well and it seems to me that we continued with the performance from Budapest. There are quite a few positive aspects, and we have to keep going like this for the rest of the weekend. There are some things I can work on, and we can get more out of the car for tomorrow’s qualifying, but we started the weekend well and I’m happy about that”.
Read more McLaren Updates: Wing and FTM Changes
The difficulties of the Sprint
The next challenge, even before the decisive qualifying for the Dutch GP grid on Sunday, will therefore be the Sprint race, where Norris will obviously want to get the better of Russell. A duel that, however, will immediately present an obstacle to the #1: “The plan is to fight with George tomorrow. It won’t be easy because here it’s not easy to overtake, and I will start from a worse side of the grid compared to the other, but we will try”.
