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George Russell took sprint pole for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, edging McLaren’s Lando Norris by 0.041 seconds in a tightly packed session that left the top four within a tenth of a second. Russell’s 1:11.567 lap gave Mercedes its first pole after the summer break and set him up to lead Saturday’s 24-lap sprint from the front. Russell said the lap came together well after a difficult first half of the season, while Norris said he was disappointed to miss out after struggling to extract the most from the soft tires in SQ3.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified third, 0.055 seconds off pole, and Oscar Piastri took fourth after improving through the session. Kimi Antonelli placed fifth after a gravel excursion in SQ1 left his Mercedes with floor damage and a loss of about 20 to 25 points of downforce, though the team repaired the car enough for him to keep going. Max Verstappen lined up sixth at his home race, with Lewis Hamilton seventh and Pierre Gasly eighth.

The session took place in changing conditions after a damp practice hour, and several drivers described balance and setup problems. Hamilton said his Ferrari felt completely different after setup changes and that the team needed to review the data, while Leclerc called his lap his best qualifying effort of the year so far. Verstappen said Red Bull still lacked grip and balance, and Aston Martin struggled badly as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were both eliminated in SQ1 after drivability and rear-wing straight-line mode problems.

Kimi Antonelli topped the only practice session for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, setting a 1:12.949 for Mercedes in a damp-to-drying session that began on intermediates before teams switched to slicks. Lando Norris was second, 0.121 seconds back, and George Russell was third, with Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri rounding out a tightly packed top six. Less than three-tenths of a second separated the top five, and Antonelli recovered after a spin at Turn 10 that caused no damage.

Red Bull had a more difficult opening day. Max Verstappen finished 11th in practice after reporting oversteer, low grip, poor gearshifts and a gravel excursion, while Liam Lawson was 14th in his return to the senior team and Yuki Tsunoda finished 17th with Racing Bulls. Carlos Sainz ended the session last after repeated gravel trips and floor damage, and Nico Hulkenberg, Gabriel Bortoleto and Pierre Gasly all ran inside the top eight as the track evolved. The weekend was being run in sprint format, so the practice session was the only one before sprint qualifying later Friday.

In F1 Academy at Zandvoort, Alisha Palmowski took pole position with a 1:40.911 in another wet-to-dry qualifying session. Alba Larsen qualified second, Natalia Granada was third for her best qualifying result, and Zoe Florescu finished seventh on her qualifying debut as a Wild Card entry. Florescu said changing conditions made tire management difficult, but she said Hitech made the right call on strategy and she will start from the front row for the Reverse Grid Race.

Fernando Alonso said he has not decided on his Formula 1 future and has no timeline for doing so, as talks over his next move with Aston Martin continue. The two-time champion said he plans to speak with team owner Lawrence Stroll and executive technical director Adrian Newey in the coming weeks, possibly around the Monza weekend or during factory visits for simulator work, and he said his immediate focus is the Zandvoort race weekend.

Alonso’s contract with Aston Martin expires after the 2026 season, and he said he wants to stay involved with the team long term, either as a driver or in another role. If he stops driving in Formula 1, he said he would not rule out other racing challenges such as the Indianapolis 500 or Dakar, and he also left open the possibility of another run at a third world title. He said he still needs competition and adrenaline, but he has not spent much of the summer break focused on the decision.

Alonso said Aston Martin’s performance will not determine his choice, and he played down the importance of the team’s upgrades and Honda’s new power unit. He said the Honda unit matters more as a test of Aston Martin’s development direction, while the team’s 2026 season has not started as hoped. Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack said discussions about Alonso’s future have been going on for months, that the team had expected a decision around the summer, and that Alonso remains its priority choice.

F1 returned from the summer shutdown at Zandvoort with Ferrari and McLaren leading the upgrade push at the Dutch GP sprint weekend. Ferrari brought five changes to the SF-26, updating the floor body, floor board, floor edge, diffuser and beam wing to increase aerodynamic load and improve flow to the rear of the car. McLaren arrived with a large package featuring a new rear wing, revised bodywork, a new rear brake duct and a new engine cover to boost aerodynamic and cooling performance after its win in Hungary.

Alpine brought the biggest package, with eight updates across the floor, diffuser, bodywork, rear drum face, rear impact structure and rear wing. Only Pierre Gasly was set to run the new parts this weekend. Aston Martin added five upgrades to the front wing, floor and diffuser area to find more rear load, while Mercedes made one front-corner tweak. Red Bull’s only change was reliability-focused and aimed at reducing strain on the rear wishbone gaiter. Williams, Racing Bulls, Haas, Audi and Cadillac brought no updates.

After the first 11 Grands Prix of 2026, teams had already introduced 323 upgrades across five areas. Red Bull led the year with 38 modifications, Ferrari and McLaren had 35 each, Cadillac had 34 and Mercedes had 23 despite leading the championship. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the team could increase its development effort in the second half of the season, while Ferrari’s floor work had been the most extensive of any team and McLaren had focused heavily on suspension-related aerodynamic parts.

Lando Norris said McLaren’s upgraded car has given him fresh confidence ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, after a new floor helped him win in Hungary and deliver what he described as a bigger pace advantage than at any point last year. Norris said the step forward made McLaren’s outlook more encouraging, but he was unsure the strong form would last for the rest of the season.

He said Zandvoort will be the next test of whether McLaren’s latest floor and development work have made the car faster across a wider range of circuits. Norris said the track will be a different challenge because of the wind and colder weather, and he said McLaren still needs more data to know whether the improvement will transfer to different tracks, surfaces and corner types. He also said the car remains difficult to drive and needs careful adaptation corner by corner, with street circuits such as Monaco still a weakness.

McLaren is bringing another upgrade package to Zandvoort, centered on a new rear wing and revised rear brake ducts, as it looks to complete the package first introduced in Hungary. The team wants to validate the new parts quickly and keep pushing with 12 races left, with technical director Neil Houldey saying reliability and execution will be crucial as rivals continue to develop. Norris said the team’s people, along with Andrea Stella and Zak Brown, gave him reassurance, and his own recent form also boosted his confidence. He said he was not focused on the Drivers’ Championship, where he trailed leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli by less than 100 points.

George Russell said he had a “huge load off my mind” after Mercedes traced the straight-line speed problems that hurt him at Silverstone and Spa to the power unit, and not to his driving. He said he had spent much of the first half of the season worrying that he needed to change his technique to compensate, and learning the cause relieved him because he no longer believed the problem was his fault. Russell said Mercedes had already fixed the software issue that affected those weekends before the Hungarian Grand Prix, though he still had a difficult race there because of chassis problems and a poor start. He said Mercedes could still have fought for a podium in Hungary, but added there are no guarantees the team will improve at Zandvoort.

Ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, Russell said he wants to focus on performance rather than the Drivers’ Championship as he enters the second half of the season 59 points behind teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli. He said he is not overthinking the points gap, wants to turn the page after a difficult run before the summer break, and hopes to build momentum and drive more instinctively. Russell also said team orders are not a consideration at Mercedes right now.

Russell said Mercedes is behind the curve in development after bringing fewer upgrades than rivals Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren, even though the team won eight of the first 11 Grands Prix. He said the gap to its competitors has tightened and that the next upgrades could be crucial. The pressure around Russell’s form has also grown, with former Haas team boss Guenther Steiner warning that he could fall back into the midfield, or even lose his Mercedes seat, if he does not improve in the second half of the 2026 season.