Verstappen resurrects at home with a great 'pole' before the harassment of Ferrari

• Fernando Alonso The ultimate challenge at Aston Martin

• Starting grid Classification and times

• Alonso and Hamilton An infinite rivalry... beyond apologies

Zandvoort roared in unison with

's

, the fourth of this World Championship which he will soon put an end to.

The volume of the loudspeakers exploded as a tribute to the idol and fists were clenched in the Red Bull garage.

There they had worked hard at dawn to recover the car from its mechanical problems and leave the rest in the hands of their leader.

With such a party in the stands, Verstappen fulfilled his part (1: 10,342), with 21 thousandths over

and 92 over

.

"We have changed a lot of things and once again I felt great pleasure behind the wheel,"

admitted as soon as he got out of the car.

There was a sincere joy in his smile, because at the last moment he had managed to get rid of the Ferraris, while

suffered a bad spin at turn 7 that ruined the improvement of

and

.

Leclerc stood up to the end, leading Q3 with 59 thousandths against Verstappen.

On this narrow and winding track, Ferrari knew of his options and wanted to save the best bullets.

However, that alone is not enough against the next champion, always punctual with his genius when the moment calls for it.

pigeons and flares

Sainz, from less to more, ended up nailing a lap without errors that leaves him in a good position for the race.

In Q2 he had even allowed himself to lead the table (1: 10,814) with almost a tenth over Verstappen, who was running on used tyres.

The management of the tires, exposed to overheating, will be as important tomorrow as the strategy, given the difficulty of each overtaking.

, from the thirteenth step of the grid, will have enough to hunt down a point.

There is nothing promising on Sunday for the two-time champion on these North Sea beaches, as far as the pigeons also approach.

The birds must find something appetizing because already during the morning free session, Russell had warned of their presence at the seventh turn.

At the beginning of Q2, the stewards had to hurry to scare them away, while other teammates removed a flare thrown by a fan from the asphalt.

Surprises in Q2

The red flag gave way to the appearances of

and

, determined to sit at the same table as the favorites with an Aston Martin and a Haas, respectively.

When the board is shaken that much, someone obviously has to get hurt.

And this time it was Alpine.

Alonso knew he was in trouble, aware that he should polish his Q1 time (1:11.667) in the face of fierce competition from McLaren and AlphaTauri.

As he only improved by 54 thousandths and as his last attempt was hampered by Perez, the two-time champion fell out of the top-10 for the third time in 15 races.

Nor could he this time with

, his garage partner, who will start twelfth behind

.

The Spaniards had been forced to make an extra effort in Q1 due to the extraordinary progression of the track, at almost 40ºC on its surface.

Under those conditions,

was able to sneak in third, Stroll seventh and

tenth, with the consequent general astonishment.

The top-15 was concentrated in just half a second and the rope almost tightened Sainz's neck, who could only improve

's time .

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• Fernando Alonso

• Carlos Sainz Jr.

• Max Verstappen

• Red Bull Racing

• Mercedes GP

• Lewis Hamilton