Revised starting grid for the Sprint Race at the Dutch GP

George Russell is the driver aiming to lead the field through the first corner. In a thrilling finale on Friday, he came out on top. The Mercedes driver set a 1:11.567, keeping Lando Norris just 0.041 seconds behind. Charles Leclerc was only 0.055 seconds off, and Oscar Piastri, 0.099 seconds back, was also within a tenth of pole position. As a result, Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari all occupy the first two rows.

The sprint qualifying was far less smooth for Max Verstappen. The Dutchman was already not particularly close to the fastest drivers in SQ1, and a major step was also missing in SQ2. He did manage to make it into SQ3, but his 1:12.094 was more than half a second slower than Russell’s time. That puts Verstappen on the third row alongside championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

Antonelli starts from P5 and thus becomes Verstappen’s first immediate target. The Italian didn’t have a trouble-free sprint qualifying himself. He ran through the gravel early in the session and damaged the floor of his Mercedes. After that, he couldn’t find his rhythm again, leaving him well off his teammate’s pace. Antonelli is eager to move forward, but he’ll need a good start to do so.

Behind Verstappen is Lewis Hamilton. That might be surprising given the speed Ferrari showed earlier on Friday. Hamilton felt good in his car in FP1, but said that after a few small changes for sprint qualifying, his Ferrari suddenly felt like a completely different car. As a result, the seven-time world champion was stuck on P7. Teammate Leclerc did manage to extract the pace and will start from third.

Ferrari could therefore be a key factor in the fight for the sprint win. Even polesitter Russell isn’t counting his chickens yet. After the session, the Brit pointed to Ferrari’s long runs and stated that Mercedes was about three to four tenths per lap off the pace. With Leclerc directly behind Russell and Norris, the start could immediately be crucial for the short race’s outcome.

Lawson also noticed that Red Bull did not make the same progress during sprint qualifying as their rivals. Verstappen’s temporary teammate felt there was potential to be much further up, but ultimately fell short in SQ2. He’ll start the sprint from eleventh, directly ahead of Yuki Tsunoda—who, according to Racing Bulls, did very well in his first F1 qualifying since the end of the 2025 season.

There was another change at the back of the grid after sprint qualifying. Fernando Alonso qualified 22nd and last, but Aston Martin then made changes to the setup of his car. As a result, the two-time world champion must start from the pit lane. Sainz joins him in the pit lane. Williams reports that they have made setup changes with an eye on the rest of the weekend.