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Pole position for Norris as Mercedes duo rue mistakes A tense qualifying session at Zandvoort ended with mild rain complicating matters for the drivers, but World Champion Lando Norris kept his head cool and took pole in his orange McLaren. Sprint race winner George Russel was second fastest while Kimi Antonelli will start from third on the grid. Following Russell's strong victory in the sprint race, the Zandvoort Grand Prix weekend continued with qualifying for Sunday's main race. With the track being such a tricky one to get right and stay out of traffic many cars were out immediately at the light went green. The Aston Martin duo, both Haas driver and the Racing Bulls were soon followed by the Red Bulls and Ferrari drivers. Mercedes and McLaren waited a few minutes as several drivers were doing several quick laps on the soft tyres. 6 minutes into the session it was Hamilton who held the fastest time, followed by Lawson, Verstappen, Leclerc, Tsunoda and Lindblad. When the McLaren duo set a time when the session had 10 minutes remaining they both took the top spots with Piastri the fastest of the two. Only Russell managed to do something about that when he went second fastest with his first lap right after Antonelli had gone faster than Hamilton, but unable to better the McLaren drivers. Positions at the front didn't change much in the next minutes with action mostly provided by some midfield runners and Hamilton having an off at Turn 1, badly locking the right front before skidding through the gravel and returning to the track without damage via the escape road. In the closing stages everyone but Leclerc and Verstappen ventured out again. Both McLarens improved with Hamilton slotting into second, 0.063s behind Piastri. Bortoletto improved at the very end to get through into Q2, as did both Alpines, eventually pushing Sainz, Alonso, Stroll, Bearman, Bottas and Perez out. Q2 kicked off with the top contenders going out, following Hulkenberg who was the first to start his flying lap. The German was soon tooped by both Mercedes and both Red Bulls. Encouragingly for Lawson, the Englishman was extremely close to Verstappen's pace again after ruing a lack of grip on his second set of tyres in the first part of qualifying. After Ferrari's Leclerc went fastest and Hamilton moved into third, the McLaren duo once again showed strong pace with Piastri taking the top spot, 0.026s faster than his teammate. Halfway into the session, right after Bortoletto set the 8th best time, Hulkenberg returned to the track, looking to improve on his earlier time that turned out good enough only for 14th, albeit just 0.28s away from his Audi teammate. After the sun has disappeared behind thicking clouds, Norris improved to take the top spot away from his teammate at the very end of the session. Nothing much else changed to the pecking order with the slightly cooler track probably impacting grip. Russell and Hamilton for example both ended up locking up the front right in Turn 1, therefore unable to improve. Q2 was the end of qualifying for both Alpine drivers, as well as Hulkenberg, Tsunoda, Ocon and Albon. Lindblad was the lucky last one to make it through into the top 10. With rain predicted 5 minutes into Q3, Norris got things going with a solid 1:11.344, topping Piastri, Antonelli and Verstappen. Russell was next to cross the finish line and moved up to second before Leclerc went 4th fastest. Hamilton was the last one to pot a flying lap but he only ended up in 8th, finding himself behind the Red Bulls, ahead only of Lindblad and Bortoletto. Sure enough, mild rain arrived as precticted but didn't seem to immediately impact the pace. Sure enough driving didn't get easier but Antonelli still found enough to take provisional pole. 15 seconds later Norris fought back and took it back before Russell moved up to second after a mighty first sector. The Ferraris meanwhile did a prep lap despite the weather situation so still only started their flying laps after the others had played their cards. Leclerc made the best of it it got it up to 5th again. Hamilton did better still and took 5th himself moments later. That effectively settled the grid with no time left for anyone else to go out again for another attempt, even if the rain would prove mild enough to make it possible. Lando Norris was fastest and will start from pole, ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and Antonelli.