McLaren seize control at Zandvoort
If practice is any guide, qualifying at Zandvoort runs through McLaren. Lando Norris topped all three sessions at the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix, capped by a 1:08.972 in final practice that undercut last year’s pole time. Oscar Piastri kept him honest in P2 throughout, but the orange cars looked locked in from the first lap on a track that usually punishes the smallest mistakes.
FP1 set the tone. Norris logged a 1:10.278 to open the weekend, with Piastri only 0.292s back. Behind them, Aston Martin showed early bite: Lance Stroll slotted into third, 0.501s off, just ahead of Fernando Alonso at +0.563s. Alex Albon (Williams) rounded out the top five. The surprise? Max Verstappen was only sixth for Red Bull, nearly a second adrift of the session benchmark at his home race.
Ferrari’s morning was rough. Charles Leclerc finished 14th, and Lewis Hamilton 15th—both more than 1.6s away—while the team chased grip and balance in the twisty middle sector. Mercedes didn’t look settled either. George Russell was seventh, and rookie Kimi Antonelli ended the session 20th, almost four seconds off as he built mileage on a circuit that demands confidence on banking and in blind entries.
FP2 brought drama. Stroll suffered a heavy crash that forced Aston Martin into an overnight survival cell change. The impact underlined Zandvoort’s thin margins—brush the gravel or run a fraction wide at the banked corners, and you pay for it. Credit to the crew: the car was back out on Saturday, and Stroll returned to log useful laps in FP3.
By FP3, the lap times tumbled. Norris uncorked the 1:08.972 that broke last year’s pole mark, underlining how hooked up McLaren looked on soft tyres over a single lap. Piastri stayed in the slipstream at +0.242s, while Russell gave Mercedes a lift with third—albeit almost eight-tenths back from the top. Carlos Sainz impressed in fourth for Williams, ahead of Verstappen in fifth as Red Bull tried to widen the operating window of the RB.
Leclerc climbed to sixth as Ferrari steadied the ship, with Albon also featuring in the top 10 to confirm Williams’ pace on the short runs. The remaining slots were covered by Stroll, Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar, and Alonso—useful markers for teams aiming for Q3 but still searching for the last tenth.
The biggest setback belonged to Hamilton. The seven-time champion was only 14th in FP3 after bailing on his key soft-tyre push lap thanks to traffic. That left him without a representative time and little clarity on one-lap pace, which is a headache at a track where track position is king.
What it means for qualifying and the race
Norris is the clear favorite for pole, but Zandvoort qualifiers are rarely straightforward. The circuit is narrow, the cambers are tricky, and the margins are tiny from Turn 2 through Turn 11. The two banked corners—Turn 3 and the final turn—reward commitment and a stable rear. Miss an apex or get caught in the wrong tow, and the lap is toast. Expect traffic games and queues, especially late in Q1 and Q3.
McLaren’s edge looks like a mix of downforce and drivability. The car rotated cleanly in medium-speed corners in FP1 and FP3, and both drivers could repeat lap times without wrestling snap oversteer. If the track rubbers in further, their one-lap bias should translate well to qualifying—so long as they avoid yellow flags and don’t get boxed in by the pack on their prep laps.
Red Bull has work to do. Verstappen wasn’t far off on balance, but he lacked the bite Norris showed in Sector 2, where rhythm matters more than straight-line punch. That’s fixable with small setup changes on ride height and mechanical balance, and Red Bull has a habit of finding time when it counts. The home crowd will expect a step in Q3; getting the car into the right temperature window on the softs is the immediate task.
Ferrari’s picture is mixed. The car looked edgy on Friday, then calmer on Saturday as Leclerc climbed into the top six. Hamilton’s FP3 traffic mess hides his true speed, but he still needs a clean lap early in Q2 to avoid a surprise elimination. The team’s overnight changes improved traction out of the low-speed turns; the question is whether they sacrificed too much peak front-end grip for that stability.
Mercedes can build around Russell’s FP3 third. The W16 looked more predictable over the bumps, and Russell carried confidence into Turn 3, which is where they’ve bled time in the past. Antonelli’s lowly FP1 shows his learning curve, but his long-run work will help with strategy options if qualifying gets messy.
Williams has a real shot at a second-row start. Sainz’s fourth in FP3 wasn’t a fluke—he pieced together a tidy lap with strong exit speeds onto the banked final corner. Albon’s repeat top-10 appearances back that up. On a track where overtaking is hard, turning that into track position could force faster cars to burn strategy just to get by.
Aston Martin deserves credit for the rebuild after Stroll’s accident. Getting him back in the car and into the top 10 on Saturday mattered for confidence. Alonso, meanwhile, looked like a banker for Q3 if the team threads the needle on tyre prep. For Racing Bulls, Hadjar sneaking into the top 10 in FP3 is a nice headline and a useful read on the car’s high-downforce balance.
Pirelli’s hardest range is doing what it usually does here—long warm-up, but reliable once in the window. The soft looks like the qualifying tyre, with teams estimating roughly eight-tenths over the medium on short runs. That gap is big enough to make two-lap prep runs on the soft appealing if temperatures drop or the wind picks up around the dunes.
Key storylines heading into qualifying:
- Can Norris convert a clean sweep of practice into pole, or will Piastri nick it by a couple of tenths when the track peaks?
- Does Verstappen find the missing mid-corner load in time to give the home crowd a front-row start?
- Where does Hamilton really sit after the traffic-hit FP3, and can Ferrari give him a clear track when it matters?
- Is Williams’ one-lap pace durable under pressure, or does the field compress when everyone fires up full engine modes?
Strategy minds will already be thinking about Sunday. Track position matters at Zandvoort. The pit lane is tight, Safety Cars are common when drivers get greedy with the gravel, and the undercut can swing things if tyres fall off faster than expected. A front-row start buys options; a row three start locks you into hoping for yellow flags or a bold early stop.
One more factor: traffic etiquette. We’ve seen qualifying here turn into a queue, and stewards have been firm on impeding calls. Teams will choreograph out-laps and gaps down to the second to prevent a repeat of Hamilton’s FP3 situation. Getting caught behind a slow out-lap can ruin your only shot at a peak track.
All of this plays out against a tight title fight at the top of the drivers’ standings. Piastri leads Norris by nine points, and while McLaren’s constructors’ cushion is huge—559 points to Ferrari’s 260 and Mercedes’ 236—every pole and fastest lap swings momentum. Right now, the momentum arrow points at car number 4.
So, the pecking order after practice looks like this: McLaren in a league of its own on one lap; Red Bull within striking distance if they unlock sector two; Ferrari steadier but still searching; Mercedes encouraged by Russell; Williams a genuine Q3 and second-row threat; Aston Martin resilient; Racing Bulls opportunistic. It’s Zandvoort, though—tight walls, crosswinds off the North Sea, and no freebies. The stopwatch will settle the rest.