Two Sides of the Same Coin: How Did the Two Qualis Go in Zandvoort?

Two qualifying sessions, two different winners – but surprisingly few changes at the front. George Russell took pole for Saturday’s sprint, while Lando Norris claimed the top spot for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix. Behind them, however, much of the same technical pattern kept emerging: McLaren was strongest in the fast corners, Mercedes relied on straight-line performance, Ferrari struggled to extract the most from its tyres, and Red Bull continued to lack grip.

So what changed between Friday’s sprint qualifying and Saturday’s race qualifying – and why was Mercedes’ formula enough for pole once, but not twice?

Sprint Qualifying: Mercedes Gets It Right

Sprint qualifying began with a costly mistake for Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes driver ran into the gravel almost immediately, “losing the rear very weirdly.” No damage was initially spotted, but the consequences became clear later.

After finishing only fifth, Antonelli explained that the car had suffered significant floor damage: “I had a couple of holes in the floor. [...] They initially said it was a loss of 25 points [of downforce] and then they tried to repair as much as possible, but definitely damage was still there and I was struggling a lot in the low-speed.” He also admitted that he had carried “a little bit too much entry speed into the last corner,” before losing the rear.

Fernando Alonso also went into the gravel, while Liam Lawson, substituting for Isack Hadjar at Red Bull after Hadjar’s wrist injury, surprisingly outqualified his teammate for the weekend, Max Verstappen, in SQ1. 

The drivers eliminated in SQ1 were Oliver Bearman (P17), Carlos Sainz (P18), Lance Stroll (P19), Valtteri Bottas (P20), Sergio Perez (P21), and Alonso (P22). 

There were few major surprises, although Aston Martin had hoped Alonso could make SQ2 after bringing updates and a new Honda engine, as he had at the Hungaroring. Alonso complained about his “old friend” – chassis vibrations – while the rear wing failed to function correctly, preventing him from putting together a competitive lap. 

Williams had its own problems. Sainz received a warning for driving too slowly while making way for Charles Leclerc in Turn 13 and reaching the Safety Car Line five seconds slower than permitted. He avoided further punishment after explaining that his battery had run out and he could not accelerate the car. 

His qualifying struggles were part of a bigger problem: “I struggled a lot this morning with the balance of the car and unfortunately went off into the gravel a few times. We damaged quite a lot of parts on the car, so [...] the components that we have to put on the car for the rest of the weekend are not the best in terms of downforce and performance delivery.”

His teammate Alexander Albon confirmed that Williams had a limited number of spare parts: “We’ve obviously had these cars for a while now, we haven’t upgraded for a while, so they’re a little bit worse for wear, so we have to treat them nicely.”

In SQ2, Lewis Hamilton was held up by Verstappen, while Oscar Piastri consistently set the fastest sector times. Russell’s Mercedes finally looked more competitive. 

Yuki Tsunoda, standing in for Lawson at Racing Bulls while Lawson substituted for Hadjar at Red Bull, almost made SQ3 but fell short. Lawson also missed out, saying he “had no idea what happened.” 

The drivers eliminated in SQ2 were Lawson (P11), Tsunoda (P12), Franco Colapinto (P13), Nico Hülkenberg (P14), Esteban Ocon (P15), and Albon (P16). Arvid Lindblad progressed to SQ3 and was clearly pleased with the result. 

The McLarens, Leclerc, and Russell traded the best sector times in SQ3, but it was Russell who put the lap together when it mattered. He secured the sprint pole, with Norris second and Leclerc third.

The result was particularly notable because Mercedes had chosen a very clear setup philosophy: sacrifice some cornering performance for greater straight-line speed.

According to F1 graphs, McLaren and Ferrari were faster than Mercedes in both slow and fast corners, but lost ground on the straights. Russell, meanwhile, struggled particularly in the fast Turns 7 and 8, but from Turn 13 to the finish he accelerated exceptionally strongly. 

That final sector was crucial. Russell trailed Leclerc by around 0.2 seconds and Norris by 0.1 seconds before the penultimate corner, but Mercedes had plenty of energy deployment and power available. Combined with the car’s lighter aerodynamic configuration, this gave Russell a high top speed and allowed him to reverse the deficit.

Mercedes appeared to be relying heavily on the strengths of its powertrain. The team had brought upgrades to the floor, front end, rear wing, and rear brake ducts, while continuing to place a heavy emphasis on straight-line performance.

The approach worked. Despite losing time in the high-speed corners, the W17 remained competitive in the slower ones, and Russell was able to extract enough performance from the soft tyres to take pole.

Antonelli, meanwhile, could no longer produce a representative lap after damaging the underbody in his gravel excursion. He lost ground at Turn 7 but recovered around two tenths through the Turns 11-12 chicane, where he carried more speed than Russell.

How the Other Front-Runners Compared

McLaren

As in practice, McLaren’s strongest area was the high-speed corners. The new features appeared to be working, and the car was fast and predictable. Norris lost slightly to Piastri at Turn 2 but carried more speed through Turns 9 and 10 and got on the throttle earlier. 

He only finally gained a clear advantage over Piastri after Oscar suffered understeer and made a correction at Turn 13, which was clearly visible on the throttle graph.

Ferrari

Ferrari’s engineers took a risk and installed a new floorpan specifically for sprint qualifying. The change did not upset the balance, and the SF-26 remained competitive. 

Unlike the general pattern this year, Ferrari focused on the slower corners, where the SF-26 was stronger than McLaren, although not Mercedes. The drivers did not push the car as hard as McLaren, apparently to compensate for the engine’s lack of power on the straights. Nevertheless, Ferrari remained ahead of Mercedes in the high-speed corners. 

Leclerc was able to put together a stronger lap than Hamilton, who lost time with a mistake at the exit of Turn 1 before underperforming in the high-speed corners of the second sector and the long Turn 9.

Red Bull

Red Bull suffered from a lack of grip. Verstappen lost a lot of time in Turns 3, 9, and 13, all of which are banked corners. In addition to the low minimum corner speed, Max waited a long time before getting on the gas, indicating severe understeer in the centre and oversteer on the exit. 

Red Bull was good on the straights but lost too much in the corners. The problem therefore appeared to be more fundamental than a simple setup choice: the overall performance of the RB22 still needs to improve.

Race Qualifying: Norris Turns the Tables

By Saturday, the competitive order had shifted just enough to produce a different pole-sitter.

The McLarens were expected to perform strongly – and they did. Alonso initially reached P12, raising hopes that he could make Q2, but those hopes eventually disappeared.

Stroll had his time deleted for track limits while his garage worked hard to repair the car, with Lance holding P13 for some time. Hamilton went off into the gravel. Lindblad was significantly faster than Tsunoda on track, according to the F1 graphics. 

Gasly was noted for an unsafe release, which was to be investigated after the session. Hülkenberg briefly set the fastest Sector 2 before Piastri beat him and moved onto provisional pole. 

Lawson, meanwhile, reported having “absolutely no” grip on his tyres. Tsunoda initially managed P7, while Sainz again failed to reach Q2 and was outperformed by Albon on track. Bortoleto ran off at a corner and apologised, asking, “What the **** am I doing there?” 

The drivers eliminated in Q1 were Sainz (P17), Alonso (P18), Stroll (P19), Bearman (P20), Bottas (P21), and Perez (P22). 

Both Russell and Hamilton locked up in Q2, while Lindblad made Q3, luckily, as he said on team radio. Gasly (P11), Tsunoda (P12), Hülkenberg (P13), Colapinto (P14), Ocon (P15), and Albon (P16) were eliminated. 

Q3 began with Verstappen leaving the pits right in front of Russell. “We’ll probably have George crying on the radio about the pit release, but it was nothing unsafe,” Max said. Russell, meanwhile, asked his team about the rain, only to be told it was expected in the final five minutes. The forecast proved correct. 

Norris was fastest in Sector 2 and ultimately took pole. Explaining the improvement, he said, “We had to try something because what we had before wasn't going to be enough, so we made some small changes [...] enough to maybe give me a little bit more confidence. And on a track like Zandvoort, you need good confidence in the car, and you want to attack a lot. So I felt like I could do that more today, and it paid off.”

Russell was satisfied with second, congratulating Norris and McLaren. He also highlighted the cooler temperatures, which “made the track feel really fast.” 

Antonelli completed the top three after a mistake in Turn 1. “I went in too slow and lost a lot of time. So it was a mistake on my part, but it's still a third position,” he admitted.

The rest of the top 10 were Piastri (P4), Hamilton (P5), Leclerc (P6), Verstappen (P7), Lawson (P8), Bortoleto (P9), and Lindblad (P10). 

Why Did the Order Change?

The biggest difference between the two sessions was not a radical change in the competitive order, but how well each team’s setup philosophy worked in the conditions.

McLaren: Fast Corners Still Matter

McLaren’s strong point remained the fast corners. The updated MCL40 was loaded with a fair amount of downforce, but the team continued to lose time in slow corners. 

The crucial difference was tyre behaviour. Race qualifying masked the rear tyre overheating issues, and in the cold weather, this could have even given McLaren an advantage. The shorter gear ratios and lack of long straights also helped, as they had in Hungary. 

Piastri was close to Norris but lost time at Turn 10 and the chicane. Oscar then spun slightly late in Turn 13 and lost some more time.

In other words, McLaren did not suddenly find performance in a completely different area. The same characteristics that had been visible in sprint qualifying simply became more effective under Saturday’s conditions.

Mercedes: Same Concept, Different Payoff

Mercedes remained true to its sprint qualifying setup concept: an emphasis on the straights, with less downforce than its rivals. 

Circuits such as Zandvoort and the Hungaroring do not showcase all the strengths of Mercedes’ energy-efficient powertrain. At the same time, new developments on rival cars provide additional cornering performance. The Silver Arrows can expect further updates no earlier than the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. 

The approach had worked perfectly for Russell in the sprint qualifying. On Saturday, however, the balance shifted.

Russell lost a lot of ground in both the medium-speed corners and the long Turns 9 and 10. He himself noted that a mistake mid-lap led to the tyres overheating. Unlike in sprint qualifying, the long corners became the problem, with Russell losing more ground to his rivals there than on Friday.

The acceleration advantage from Turn 13 remained, but it was no longer enough to compensate for the losses elsewhere.

Antonelli also made a mistake, losing a lot of ground in Turn 1. He braked late and then spun the car, losing 1.5 tenths in one go. He recovered some of the deficit in the high-speed Turn 7, at Turn 9, and in the Turns 11-12 chicane, braking later and making a good run at the apex, as well as on the final run. 

But the championship leader still finished behind his teammate. 

Ferrari: From Competitive to Further Behind

Ferrari had two problems: the team struggled to get the most out of the tyres and over-tuned the powertrain settings.

Hamilton had his setup changed after he was unhappy with the car’s balance in sprint qualifying. With the new settings, he said, he had to relearn the car.

Leclerc noted that Ferrari had changed its energy-release strategy per lap, most likely to release energy earlier during acceleration. In some places, however, he simply did not expect the power to drop off. 

He did not experience any noticeable issues himself, as confirmed by a comparison of his telemetry with Hamilton’s, particularly during the final acceleration. 

Although Zandvoort is not exactly a power-sensitive track, Ferrari lost 0.3 seconds to its competitors on the straights and failed to compensate sufficiently in the corners. Furthermore, a strong engine now provides not only power but also efficiency, which is precisely what Ferrari lacks. 

Shifting the focus of energy release towards acceleration clearly did not help and led to losses in the middle of the straights. Poor tyre preparation also compromised acceleration, requiring more energy to compensate.

The result was a Ferrari that had looked relatively competitive in sprint qualifying but slipped further behind its main rivals on Saturday.

Red Bull: Still the Same Problem

Red Bull continued to suffer from a lack of grip. As in spring qualifying, Verstappen waited a long time in the long corners before getting on the gas. 

The team was good on the straights but lost too much in the corners. Overall, this was not simply a setup issue but a consequence of the RB22’s overall performance, which still needs to improve. 

Lawson, however, made a significant step forward. He stayed close to Max but lost ground in Turns 2 and 9 and the chicane, while being faster in the high-speed corners.

What Changed Between the Two Qualis?

The two sessions ultimately told a remarkably similar story – but with a different winner.

Mercedes’ straight-line-focused approach was enough to give Russell sprint pole, but the same philosophy became less effective when tyre overheating began to hurt the car in the long corners. McLaren retained its advantage in the fast sections while benefiting from conditions that reduced the impact of its rear-tyre overheating.

Ferrari, meanwhile, could not carry its sprint qualifying performance into Saturday. Changes to the setup, energy deployment, and tyre preparation left the SF-26 losing time both on the straights and in the corners. Red Bull remained limited by the same underlying lack of grip.

So, rather than seeing two completely different competitive pictures, Zandvoort’s two qualifying sessions showed the same strengths and weaknesses under slightly different conditions.

The ingredients stayed largely the same. The recipe changed – and this time, it gave Norris a pole.