Max Verstappen Claims Pole For 2022 Dutch GP

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed pole position for his home race for 2022 Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, Netherlands.

Verstappen recovered from a difficult Friday Practice to finish third in FP3 but dominated Qualifying to claim pole position for his home race for a second consecutive season ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz as the trio were split by 0.092 seconds

Now, here is a full roundup of FP3 and Qualifying for 2022 Dutch Grand Prix.

 

FP3

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Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was the first driver out on track on soft tyres and immediately set the benchmark lap time of 1m 13.792 but found 0.189s on his next flying lap to lower his benchmark time to 1m 13.603.

Verstappen was the next driver to proceed to set a lap time as he posted 1m 12.396 on soft tyres in the 12th minute, before he lowered his benchmark to 1m 12.196 six minutes later which wasn’t beaten by the halfway mark of the session.

The first half-hour however saw a mix of programmes play out as some waited for the track to rubber in before venturing out, whilst others ran a mixture of low and high fuel runs on top of finetuning their setups.

Qualifying simulations eventually began with 21 minutes left as Alex Albon leapt up to third with a flurry of quick laps soon following, of which Leclerc emerged fastest at the checkered flag with 1m 11.632, just 0.066s quicker than Mercedes’ George Russell.

Verstappen was third quickest ahead of Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Mick Schumacher and Lando Norris, who rounded out the top ten.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1m 11.632
2	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.066
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.161
4	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 0.339
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+ 0.524
6	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+ 0.544
7	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	+ 0.695
8	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	+ 0.859
9	Mick Schumacher	Haas	+ 0.926
10	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.959
11	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+ 0.974
12	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1.141
13	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 1.143
14	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 1.371
15	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	+ 1.414
16	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+ 1.624
17	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	+ 1.667
18	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	+ 1.727
19	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	+ 1.789
20	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	+ 1.993

 

Qualifying

Q1

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Schumacher were first out on track but the Dane set the initial benchmark of 1m 12.680 but Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou went 0.039s faster.

Vettel and Lance Stroll then displaced Zhou in the seventh minute but Verstappen one minute later went fastest with 1m 11.317 to secure his passage through to Q2 as the quickest driver.

Once everyone completed their first flier, the elimination zone compromised of: Vettel, Ricciardo, Albon, Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi.

As the checkered flag fell, only Albon and Schumacher escaped elimination as Latifi qualified slowest behind Vettel and Ricciardo, whilst Magnussen could only qualify 17th behind Valtteri Bottas who suffered a Q1 elimination for a second consecutive Qualifying session.

 

Q2

Albon was first out on track on used soft tyres but the session was red flagged just 66s into the session due to a stray flare landing on the track, with the spectator responsible for the incident immediately ejected from the circuit.

The session resumed six minutes later with Albon straight back out on the track followed by Verstappen and Perez, of which Verstappen went quickest with 1m 10.927 and 0.387s clear of Perez in second, although the Mexican was soon displaced by Hamilton.

Once all 15 drivers had completed their opening Q2 flying laps, the elimination zone compromised of: Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Zhou, Yuki Tsunoda and Schumacher.

Once the checkered flag fell at end of Q2, only Tsunoda and Schumacher survived at the expense of Alonso and Albon who could only qualify 13th and 15th respectively, albeit sandwiched by Zhou in 14th whilst Gasly qualified 11th ahead of his French compatriot – Ocon.

Gasly though missed out on Q3 by only 0.084s to his AlphaTauri teammate, Tsunoda as just 0.290s covered the five eliminated drivers.

Up front, Sainz topped Q2 with 1m 10.814 and 0.010s ahead of Russell as Verstappen finished third-fastest.

 

Q3

Verstappen was first out on track after a short lull in the pit lane and immediately set down a benchmark time of 1m 10.515 ahead of Perez.

A mixture of drivers though opted to do their first flying laps on used soft tyres whilst others opted for new soft tyres, yet it was Leclerc who emerged fastest after the first Q3 runs with 1m 10.456 ahead of Verstappen, Hamilton, Sainz, Perez, Russell, Norris, Tsunoda and Schumacher.

Stroll meanwhile didn’t participate in Q3 due to a technical issue found on his Aston Martin car, which prevented him from even heading out to do an opeing Q3 run.

With just under three minutes left, Leclerc was first back out for the final Qualifying runs as he looked for a second pole position in the last seven races.

Once the checkered flag finally fell on Qualifying, Verstappen claimed a second pole position at the Dutch GP with 1m 10.342, just 0.021s ahead of Leclerc with Sainz rounding out the top three, following a spin for Perez at the final corner.

Hamilton qualified fourth as a consequence ahead of Perez, Russell, Norris, Schumacher and Tsunoda.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1m 10.342
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.021
3	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 0.092
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+ 0.306
5	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+ 0.735
6	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.805
7	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.832
8	Mick Schumacher	Haas	+ 1.100
9	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+ 2.214
10	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	No Time Set
11	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1m 11.512
12	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 0.093
13	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	+ 0.101
14	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	+ 0.192
15	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 0.290
16	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	1m 11.961
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+ 0.080
18	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	+ 0.120
19	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	+ 0.430
20	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	+ 1.392