A show of strength from Norris

A forceful performance from Lando Norris this afternoon in Zandvoort delivered the fourth pole position of his career, following on from those at Barcelona and the Hungaroring this year and his first one in Sochi back in 2021. That maiden pole position was obtained in atypical conditions as the track was wet in Q1 and Q2, before drying quickly in Q3. But while his two previous ones this year were obtained by slim margins, beating Verstappen by 20 hundredths in Spain and Piastri by 22 in Hungary, today he really stamped his authority on proceedings thanks to a clearly superior McLaren, but above all thanks to his talent. He was 356 thousandths quicker than Verstappen, who thus failed to take pole in his home race for the first time and that gap can indeed be put down to the fact that McLaren is a step ahead of the Red Bull, as indeed has been seen in the past four or five races. However, the half second (499 thousandths to be precise) by which Lando beat his third placed team-mate Oscar Piastri is all down to his skill at the wheel.

If we look at the numbers, today's performance was slightly more dominant than in Sochi. On the shores of the Black Sea, Lando beat his friend Carlos Sainz, then in his first year at Ferrari, by 507 thousandths of a second. In percentage terms, the Spaniard's time was 0.507% slower than Norris' time. The Sochi track is 5.848 km long, whereas Zandvoort is just 4.259 km and today, the percentage difference between the two fastest drivers was 0.511%.

Lando is clearly favourite to win tomorrow. Why? Because McLaren's long run pace seen in FP2 was more consistent and quicker and on a track where overtaking is far from easy, grid position takes on even greater importance in deciding the final outcome. The biggest unknown factor will be the start because this has been Lando's Achilles Heel in recent races. Will he shake off the traffic light jinx tomorrow at around 15h02 when the five lights go out above the grid at Zandvoort?