ZANDVOORT – Liam Lawson’s stellar performance on Saturday makes him an obvious Winner, but who else features on our list from qualifying in the Netherlands?

Here is PlanetF1.com’s full list of winners and losers from the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix qualifying.

Winners and losers from the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix qualifying

Winner: Liam Lawson

“Obviously for me, it’s something I’ve always known internally,” Liam Lawson on his confidence after putting in a hugely emphatic display in qualifying.

Wrapping up eighth place, just a tenth off Verstappen in the crunch segment, Lawson placed the Red Bull exactly where Hadjar would likely have done – and potentially even closer, despite his lack of familiarity and experience with the RB22.

Explaining that he’s found the 2026 Red Bull a very different beast to the ’25 machine he struggled so much with at the start of last year, the RB22 is on less of a “knife edge” and he can throw it into a corner “knowing and feeling what it’s going to do”.

But, aside from that, Lawson also pointed to his own greater levels of experience as a driver, having recently explained to this writer how he feels he came out of 2025 a stronger driver and person due to the rollercoaster he went through.

At a time when Red Bull is wondering what to do about its driver line-ups, particularly with regards to keeping Lawson or not, his performance could create something of a headache as promising junior driver Nikola Tsolov eyes up a potential F1 promotion.

With Hadjar performing strongly alongside Verstappen, there’s no reason to believe that he could be put back to Racing Bulls, but, with Racing Bulls essentially a proving ground for Red Bull drivers, the pipeline of talent coming through suggested that Lawson probably wouldn’t earn a return to the senior team.

But, could his performance this weekend create some last-minute question marks? After all, Lawson’s immediate competitiveness underlines that maybe the Kiwi is now the driver Red Bull thought it was getting when he was first promoted at the tail end of ’24.

The more likely scenario could be that a strong result on Sunday earns Lawson safety at Racing Bulls for next year, with Tsolov having to be patient for a year – why promote a driver who may perform to replace a driver who is performing?

It would buy Red Bull time to figure out whether Hadjar is the right man alongside Verstappen, whether Lawson is a cut above Lindblad, and whether or not to try helping Lawson find a new home on the grid, Alex Albon-style, if he is never to get a proper chance again at the senior squad.

Either way, Lawson is a man driving beautifully, as he has all season. His spirited battle with Lindblad in the Sprint race was a joy to watch, and the pallid, concerned Lawson who last stepped out of a Red Bull a distant and uncompetitive 12th in Shanghai 18 months ago has been replaced by a driver who is finally turning his self belief into tangible results.

Loser: Aston Martin

With Honda rolling out an updated power unit for this weekend, to marry with the updated chassis introduced in Hungary, all eyes were on Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll to see whether the duo could escape Q1.

Alas, it wasn’t to be. Down in 18th and 19th, only Cadillac seems definitively behind Aston Martin, but drivability issues continue to plague the green cars.

“Maybe a bit, but not nearly enough,” Stroll said revealing the main limitations remain drivability and power.

“On the chassis side, I think we’re quite good. So we made a big step in Budapest, and then drivability and the power is the next thing we need to really work on.

“I think the step was small, just small, and we just need a lot more.”

With regards to drivability, he said, “It’s a lottery because right now we’re just not getting the consistent engine braking going into the corner and suddenly a lot of rejected downshifts. So yeah, a lot of issues.”

Alonso was chirpier, pointing to how Aston Martin’s deficit to the front has shrunk considerably from the 4.5 second gap that was there at the start of the season, and that it’s possible to find a few more tenths through refinement of all the upgrades.

But, for fundamental drivability, he explained this can’t really happen trackside – it will need discoveries from the Sakura factory and said it could be Monza before improvements can be made.

All in all, it’s a step forward again for Aston Martin, but the apparent reality is that, for now, the updates simply aren’t enough to be transformative.

Winner: Lando Norris

Norris was very visibly disappointed after fading away to third place in the Sprint race, but McLaren made some setup changes before qualifying that enabled the reigning World Champion to do what he couldn’t in the equivalent Sprint session and take pole position ahead of George Russell.

Just a tenth clear of Russell, Norris spoke again about his confidence behind the wheel, having felt that he had driven well throughout – apart from on the lap that actually earned him pole position.

“The lap time was a bit better than I expected,” he said.

“My Turn 1 was pretty shocking, was probably my worst Turn 1 of the weekend,” he said.

“Otherwise, it wasn’t a lap that felt mega. It was just one where I just had to commit through everything because I knew how close it was going to be.

“We saw how close it was, but it’s one where I just kind of committed a lot more through moments and almost made more mistakes.

“But because I committed a lot more through some of these mistakes, I kind of seemed to gain more than I seemed to lose at times.

“So, it’s always hard to know because I don’t know my delta, so I don’t know where I went quicker or slower. But it was a lap where I just thought, ‘I have nothing to lose,’ and it paid off. So those are also nice laps to have.

With Norris again finding it easier to reach the potential of the McLaren than Oscar Piastri, it’s indicative of the British driver’s current wave of confidence that his ‘nothing to lose’ attitude is reaping dividends in abundance at present.

With track position vital at a circuit upon which overtaking can be very difficult, Norris has set himself up to follow up his breakthrough Hungarian win with another – can he reignite McLaren’s hopes of a title defence, or even start imagining himself about doing what Verstappen did last year by closing down the runaway leaders?

More from the Dutch Grand Prix

Liam Lawson pinpoints Red Bull difference behind Dutch GP turnaround

Lewis Hamilton reveals ‘nuts’ Ferrari problem in Dutch GP qualifying

Loser: Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton labelled it ‘nuts’ how his Ferrari’s tyres weren’t fully up to temperature even after two consecutive outlaps, at a time when rival cars were able to be up to temperature with just a single lap.

Tyre warm-up was the main bugbear for Hamilton after he managed fifth place, but he was happier with the handling of the SF-26 compared to what he’d had throughout the Sprint running, having lost confidence in the setup after making changes before Sprint Qualifying.

As for Charles Leclerc, he was left to rue an engine power mode change between Q2 and Q3, reverting back from a change he’d made between Q1 and Q2 – he explained that, if he could run qualifying again, he wouldn’t have changed it back.

The effect of this PU mode change was that it put off his feeling in the car, which ended up costing him as he only managed sixth, a drop back from his third place in Sprint Qualifying.

With Ferrari’s race pace stronger than its single lap pace, there is optimism that the slow tyre warm-up could yield benefits on Sunday, in terms of durability, but starting from fifth and sixth makes the driver’s jobs quite a bit more difficult.

Winner: George Russell

A controlled race victory in the Sprint saw Russell return from the summer break by clawing back a few hard-earned points on Kimi Antonelli, and the British driver continued his momentum by beating his teammate in qualifying.

There wasn’t much in it at just half a tenth, but Russell appears determined to stop Antonelli from continuing to run away with this championship, and his mental reset over the break looks to have done him some good.

Explaining on Friday how he’s approaching Zandvoort as the first race of a new championship, rather than the mid-point of an existing, is there the potential for Russell to start an onslaught?

“The feeling I’ve had this weekend is more used to the feeling I’ve had earlier in the season and my years gone by in Formula 1,” he said.

“So, I’m glad that is the case. I hope that can continue. But it definitely brings me a lot of confidence because I know the potential is still very much there.

“I think the break just allowed me to put those learnings into the back of my mind, come here this weekend, not fixating on what I want to try and achieve with the car and the tyres, but knowing in the back of my head what I need to achieve and just drive more freely.

“And yeah, I’m really, really proud of that because it’s just sort of building that toolbox of experience for me that’s going to allow me to be even better in the years to come. Who knows, maybe next year the technique is totally different again. That’s the beauty and challenge of Formula 1. Every year it’s different.”

Certainly, Russell’s re-discovered speed seems to have put Antonelli slightly on edge, with a mistake from the championship leader in Sprint Qualifying damaging his car before finishing fourth in the race.

Antonelli denied that he’s tensed up as he’s been struggling to find the rhythm this weekend, but did reveal that he’s viewing this Dutch Grand Prix event as a “wake-up call” that he can’t afford to lower his guard.

Loser: Alpine

With early weekend pace suggesting Alpine could be right back in the mix with Racing Bulls and Audi to compete at the top of the midfield, Pierre Gasly couldn’t quite join in with them in qualifying as he was knocked out in 11th place.

Using the updated A526, one can forgive Alpine for perhaps not quite having unlocked the full potential of the package with just a solitary practice session to fettle it.

It’s for this likely reason that Gasly was unconcerned after stepping out of the car, instead explaining that everything hasn’t quite “clicked” yet to make the car feel amazing, but too slow.

There’s clearly potential but, for now, Alpine doesn’t appear to have quite figured it out.

Winner: Gabriel Bortoleto

In the battle of the midfield, which has a slightly different complexion this weekend given the elevation of Lawson into Red Bull, it was Bortoleto who came out on top to give Audi another reason to smile and hope for a fourth consecutive points finish.

That was despite the Brazilian almost knocking himself out in Q1 as he got squirrelly coming out of Turn 1, leading to him remonstrating with himself behind the wheel and shouting, “I don’t know what I’m doing!” over the radio.

But the next 40 minutes or so showed that he did, in fact, know what he was doing as he negotiated his way through into Q3 and took the ‘best of the rest’ spot behind the top four teams.

In the absence of Lawson, Tsunoda wasn’t quite able to match the same heights that the Kiwi might have delivered in the same car, meaning that it’s Arvid Lindblad who will bring the battle to Bortoleto on Sunday.

At a time where Audi is starting to go from strength to strength, can Bortoleto keep up the team’s positive momentum and start underlining the Hinwil-based squad’s improvement?

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Winners and losers from the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix Qualifying