What a title fight Formula One would have on its hands if McLaren could make the final steps with their car. This was demonstrated to dramatic effect on Saturday as Lando Norris hurled his ride around Zandvoort to claim pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix. It was a prize secured against the odds and his own expectations, hours after he had bemoaned being in no position to fulfil his hopes of mounting a successful title defence.
The McLaren car is immensely quick through the fast corners, perhaps the class of the field, but is haemorrhaging time through the slow stuff, the package not quite complete, or suboptimal as Ron Dennis would have had it. Yet Norris managed to eke out its very best across the circuit to see off the Mercedes of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli into second and third place. The season’s dominant car was subdued by Norris in qualifying for the second race in succession, after he took pole in Hungary.
Earlier in the day the defending world champion was disgruntled at best with his ride. Russell had won the sprint race with a controlled dominance from pole position, but Norris had gone from second to third, struggling for grip and pace, passed late on by Charles Leclerc. His assessment was blunt.
There is nothing we can do,” he said. It just seems to mask quite a few of our issues and that was probably still the case today. I just drove well, I put a lot of things together.” Which sets up an intriguing prospect for Sunday’s race.
With tyre wear and fat with fuel he will have to fight hard to keep the two Mercedes behind him. With Russell’s sprint victory and Antonelli only fourth, the Briton trails his teammate by 56 points, in third place in the championship. Lewis Hamilton is 53 points back in second and Norris 90 points in arrears.
Most notable is how much more comfortable Russell has looked in the car this weekend, after struggling with problems around its energy deployment that had left him frustrated and examining his driving style. Having said he intended to drive more instinctively here he came into the weekend confident, took pole and then victory in the sprint race. While he was beaten to pole in qualifying, Russell was quicker than his teammate.
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