Max Verstappen took pole position for the Dutch GP with his final lap of qualifying, knocking the McLaren of Lando Norris off the top spot in a session dominated by changeable conditions and several red flags.
Norris was on provisional pole after the first flying laps of Q3, but after the second red flag of the final session came out after a crash by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Verstappen managed to go six tenths clear at the top of the timing charts.
George Russell snatched third for Mercedes with the final lap of the session, pushing the impressive Williams of Alex Albon into fourth after the Thai had topped Q1.
Fernando Alonso showed once again that Aston Martin may have regained some of the form that saw the Spaniard secure a run of podiums in the early stages of the season with fifth, ahead of Carlos Sainz and the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
Oscar Piastri was down in eighth for McLaren, ahead of Leclerc and the other Williams of Logan Sargeant, with the American set to start from 10th in the race after crashing in the early stages of Q3, bringing out the red flags.
Hamilton out in Q2
The shifting conditions made it challenging for the drivers to time their flying laps, particularly with the drying track meaning that laptimes tumbled towards the end of the sessions.
The major casualty of that was Lewis Hamilton, who was knocked out in Q2 down in 13th after mistiming his final lap, leaving the seven-time champion with insufficient battery charge and worn tyres.
The session was more encouraging for Williams, with the team getting both drivers through to Q2 for the first time since the 2017 Italian GP.
Elsewhere Liam Lawson, who stepped into the AlphaTauri car of Daniel Ricciardo after the Australian injured his hand in practice on Friday, finished 20th on the grid on his F1 debut, with his teammate Yuki Tsunoda up in 14th.
