Rain-Affected Zandvoort Qualifying Brings A Lot Of Surprising Results

Circuit Zandvoort is promising a great race for Sunday after an unexpected turn of events in Q2 and Q3 at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix.

Starting with Q1, Red Bull and McLaren were showing the strongest pace, followed by the mix of drivers from Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Williams. On the other hand, both Alfa Romeo drivers - Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu could not make it into Q2 along with Kevin Magnussen, Esteban Ocon, and Liam Lawson.

Liam Lawson is a substitute for Daniel Ricciardo, who broke his finger in an unfortunate series of events in practice session 2. The Honeybadger is currently on his way to the hospital in Barcelona, where he will undergo an operation.

Until then, a previously mentioned rookie from New Zealand will have a chance to shine during Zandvoort GP and next week's race in Monza, where Nick De Vries scored points for Williams last year in the position of substitute.

While the Kiwi comes in with an impressive resume showing eight different rookie series titles, he had a bit of a hard time coming to grips with his Alpha Tauri finishing his lap 1.6 seconds slower compared to his teammate.

One of the biggest surprises of today was Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll not being able to get through to Q3. The 7-time world champion wanted to do 2 fast laps in a row, but his tires got overheated and as a result, he wasn't able to improve his time enough. On the other hand, this creates a promise for tomorrow's race as the Brit will try and fight his way up through the field.

Continuing the series of unpredicted events, both Williams cars got through to Q3, leaving behind Tsunoda, Gasly, Hulkenberg, and the previously mentioned Hamilton with Stroll.

Today was shaping up as a great day for Logan Sergeant who made it to Q3 for the first time in his Formula 1 career. However, as he finished his first flying lap in Q3, he lost control of his car and crashed into a barrier. While the American driver is fine, his mechanics will have to work overtime tonight.

Another unfortunate driver leaving some work for his mechanics tonight is Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque understeered into a barrier in Q3 shortly after Sergeant damaging both front and rear wheel parts of the car and potentially the gearbox as well. Leclerc’s time was only enough for P9 while his teammate Carlos Sainz finished P6.

Sergio Perez and Oscar Piastri finished P7 and P8 both not quite measuring up to their teammates in the last run when it mattered. Lando Norris was showing great pace throughout the session leaving hopes for papaya fans, but could not match the supreme lap of the Max Verstappen in the end.

Although it did not seem so easy for the 2 time world champion throughout Q1 and Q2, the flying Dutchman did not disappoint his roaring home crowd in the end finishing his lap half of a second faster compared to 2nd place Lando Norris.

Zandvoort also seemed to suit George Russell today, the number 63 driver finished P3, just pushing Alex Albon to 4th place by 0,129 of a second. Alex Albon might perhaps be the biggest surprise of this weekend showing surprisingly great pace on his Williams. The 27-year-old will start tomorrow's race from 2nd row with a chance to score some very nice points for his team and maybe even a podium.

Fernando Alonso is the only driver who has always made it to Q3 so far this season and he did not disappoint today, finishing P5 less than 0.1 seconds behind Albon. Only around 0,8 seconds separated P2 to P8 and so the Sunday race is definitely something to look forward to.