Windy conditions at Zandvoort made for a very tricky qualifying session. Alexander Albon suggested the difference between a lap in calm conditions and a wind-affected one might be as much as half a second.
So it was no surprise that few drivers managed to string their three fastest sector times together on a single lap. Lando Norris was one of few who did and claimed full advantage (see sector times below), putting his McLaren on pole position by three tenths of a second.
There was already ample evidence before qualifying to support the view McLaren had the fastest car at Zandvoort. With the benefit of a clean lap, Norris put himself three-tenths of a second ahead of anyone else.
That’s the biggest advantage McLaren have had over their closest rival in both absolute terms (0.356 seconds) and relative (0.51%). While the wind played a part, no doubt their latest upgrades did as well.
It also reinforces the recent trend of McLaren being especially strong at high-downforce tracks, which was also the case at the Hungaroring. The good news for their rivals is there aren’t many more of those to come.
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Based on the lap times logged during qualifying, only Sauber lapped slower than last year. Moreover, they were further from the pace than any other team. This, however, must be taken with a pinch of salt, as they were slower than Williams at the last two races, and their lap times from qualifying can’t be considered representative due to the disqualification of their only driver who took part due to a technical infringement. That said, if Williams can make their car’s floor compliant without a significant loss of performance, their pace today shows they have made a step forward.
The Ferrari drivers were dismayed by the performance of their SF-24. Notwithstanding the fact Carlos Sainz Jnr identified Zandvoort as potentially their weakest venue, they were 1.3% off the fastest lap time, worse than anywhere besides Montreal.
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Nonetheless their lap times were substantially quicker than those they set last year, when they sacrificed their performance at this race in a bid to solve the problems they encountered at the time. However Leclerc said they did much the same again at four races earlier this year.
In F1’s fourth visit to the remodelled Zandvoort, the quickest cars are now almost as fast as the previous generation were. Norris’ time was within a…
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