Verstappen needs a miracle to salvage Zandvoort farewell

With the announcement of Verstappen’s new deal with Red Bull until 2030, the race weekend started cheerfully for the Austrian outfit, but by Friday those faces looked a lot less upbeat.

It was sixth for Max Verstappen in sprint qualifying, and his teammate for the weekend, Liam Lawson, didn’t make it to the third session, landing 11th.

Verstappen improved from FP1 to sprint qualifying and also got better during that session. Still, on Zandvoort’s short circuit, Verstappen was more than half a second off George Russell’s fastest time.

While Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren were battling for pole position, Red Bull clearly wasn’t in the mix.

"It was just difficult to find grip and the right balance,” Verstappen said post-session.

After sprint qualifying, Red Bull are not allowed to work on the car, but they can after the sprint race, when they will need to find something extra in the RB22.

The bad news doesn’t end there, though, as the long runs during the first free practice session didn’t bode well. There, Verstappen was seventh on the long-run timesheet.

In sprint qualifying, among the quicker long-run drivers, Verstappen had only Lewis Hamilton behind him. Hamilton had a mediocre qualifying after a strong start to the weekend at Zandvoort.

And so there is little hope for Verstappen in Saturday’s sprint race, as it would take something unusual for the polesitter not to win. So far, every Dutch Grand Prix since its return in 2021 has been won by the man on pole. If that’s true for the Grand Prix, the first and last sprint race here will very likely produce the same outcome.

It’s now up to Red Bull to dive into the data and ensure that, as usual, they squeeze just that little bit more out of the car from Saturday to Sunday. Only then is a special result still possible for Verstappen in his last F1 race at Zandvoort.