On its F1 swansong, Zandvoort's sprint qualifying session produced a tight three-team battle at the front, with Mercedes' George Russell taking pole ahead of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc as the top five was covered by just a tenth of a second. Lewis Hamilton was the outlier, who could only muster seventh in the second Ferrari, beaten by home hero Max Verstappen's Red Bull.
Hamilton struggled with an unsettled SF-26 in SQ3 after subtle set-up changes appeared to transform the car’s handling between practice and qualifying. The team appeared to go in the wrong direction with its set-up decisions, which led to a "completely different car".
"It was not a good session, unfortunately," Hamilton said as he shipped 0.624s to pole. "This is the way it is. FP1 felt good. We made subtle adjustments to the car, but when we got into qualifying, it was a completely different car."
"We need to figure out what went wrong, and then we'll do our best tomorrow. We've just got to go through the data and figure it out. Charles was in a slightly different place than me, so a bit closer to where I was."
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
Leclerc, in fact, felt his lap that yielded third for Saturday's 24-lap sprint was his best qualifying effort of the season.
"Well, I would have preferred to start first, but I'm very happy about today because honestly, I think it was one of the best, if not, I think it's my best qualifying lap this year," an upbeat Leclerc reported after conceding just 0.055s to polesitter Russell.
"That means that we are doing something right with the feeling [of the car]. That doesn't mean it stays there forever, but at least it's always a good step in the right direction. And especially after such a long break, you kind of want that feeling to start the second half, so it was a good effort."
With the sprint format just offering a single one-hour practice session, which was further affected by damp conditions at the very start, quite how the field will stack up during Saturday's 24-lap stint is still a question mark.
"In terms of race pace, it's a bit more difficult," Leclerc acknowledged. "The conditions this morning were a little bit tricky, so we'll have to wait and see for tomorrow in the sprint race. But I believe that for now, it looks like a positive start to the weekend."
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