Lando Norris claims Dutch GP pole ahead of Mercedes duo

Welcome to our live coverage for the sprint race for the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix, the first race after F1’s summer break. Kimi Antonelli has had a tremendous first part of the season, leading Lewis Hamilton by 50 points and George Russell by 59 after the first 11 rounds. He has taken six wins to Russell’s two, with Hamilton, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc all racking up a win apiece. 

His start to the second part of the season was not the best, however. A messy sprint qualifying session meant he ended down in fifth, more than 0.2sec behind team-mate Russell, who took a much-needed pole. 

Some of the damage was self-inflicted, quite literally. In the first session of sprint qualifying he ran wide at the banked turn 12 and into the gravel. The damage to the floor of his car was attempted to be repaired for the rest of the session but left him lacking downforce. A gap of 0.2sec is not enormous but the other issue was that three other cars – Norris, Leclerc and Piastri – are between him and Russell. 

That said, it is not a great worry at this point. The points available in the sprint are relatively small and Antonelli has a healthy margin at this point over his rivals. In any case, there is no guarantee that Russell and Antonelli finish where they will start. Antonelli has shown on numerous occasions that he can bounce back from a difficult session and you have to expect that again here. 

The race, which starts at 11am BST, is one-third of the race distance and should be run in dry conditions. There have been persistent showers and a steady breeze at Zandvoort this weekend, but it is not expected to affect the running in the sprint. 

Qualifying for tomorrow’s grand prix comes later today at 3pm, which could be a more consequential session.