16 hours ago
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Oscar Piastri has put himself in a great position to win the Dutch Grand Prix and increase his world championship lead after turning the tables on his teammate Lando Norris to snatch pole position in a thrilling qualifying shootout at Zandvoort.
The Australian had been in his English rival's shadow all weekend but, not for the first time, found his best when he needed it on Saturday afternoon, pulling out a brilliant lap record with his first run in Q3 that Norris couldn't match.
Ultimately, there was only 12 thousandths of a second separating them but it could prove a critical advantage for Piastri on the seaside track where the polesitter has won in the last four editions since the race returned to Zandvoort.
'That was the definition of peaking at the right time,' enthused the ever cool Piastri, still not getting too excited after his new circuit record of one minute 08.662 seconds.
Piastri had also set the pace at the first section of qualifying after Norris had dominated practice, going fastest in both of Friday's sessions and also on Saturday morning.
But Piastri, celebrating his fifth pole of the season and his first since the Spanish GP at the start of June, reckoned he had 'chipped away', improving all weekend to deliver when he needed.
Oscar Piastri edged out teammate Lando Norris to pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix
Aussie F1 star has given himself a chance to extend title advantage
Norris lost out to his McLaren teammate by just 0.012 of a second
He leads Norris by nine points in the standings with 10 races left of the season, with Sunday's race shaping as his chance to open up the gap again after Norris had closed the gap in recent months with wins in three of the last four races.
'Just a bummer, but not a lot I can do now,' Norris said following qualifying.
'My lap was still pretty good. One hundredth is such a small margin. It's frustrating because it's a track which is pretty much impossible to overtake on. So a lot of my chances are now gone.
'Just close, small margins. If you re-run it, I could easily be ahead by the same margin again. It's close and that's just the way it is.
'There's not too much to complain of. I think there were a couple of places where I wasn't quite on a good enough limit and consistently losing a bit too much lap time today,' he told reporters.
'So, some places and things I need to work on, but otherwise the laps were good and I'm still pretty happy.'
Defending champion Max Verstappen will start in third spot on the grid for his home race, and there was a brilliant, surprising effort from French rookie Isack Hadjar in his Racing Bull as he finished fourth.
Verstappen is third in the standings but the 97-point gap to Piastri suggests it's now a two-horse race for the title between the McLaren pair.
