How Lando Norris seized pole position at the Dutch Grand Prix

Lando Norris could not have planned a better return from the Formula 1 summer shutdown.

During Saturday’s qualifying session ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix Norris charged to the front of the field, grabbing pole position by an impressive 0.356 seconds over friend and rival Max Verstappen. This marks Norris’ third Grand Prix pole position of the season, putting him in position to capture his second Grand Prix win of his career, and it certainly seems that the upgrades McLaren brought to Zandvoort are working.

The last time McLaren brought a substantial upgrade package this season? Miami, when Norris captured his maiden F1 victory.

Diving into the telemetry data, courtesy of F1-Tempo highlights just how impressive Norris’ drive was on Saturday. As you can see below Norris was quicker over the vast majority of the lap than Verstappen:

One area that certainly stands out? The fast and flowing section of the track as Sector 1 winds into Sector 2. As you can see below as Norris comes out of Turn 3 — at the mark noted by the big white dot on the below map — he is at 156 kilometers per hour (km/h). Verstappen is four km/h slower at that point:

Norris maintains that advantage over that entire track portion, with Verstappen only quicker as the circuit winds into Turn 7.

Another area where Norris had a big advantage? The final few turns and then the run back to the start/finish line. Verstappen was quicker through Turns 11 and 12 (the Hans Ernst corners), but then Norris regained the advantage on the quick straight into Turn 13, beginning here:

He then maintains that gap over Verstappen throughout the rest of the lap, all the way back to the start/finish line.

However, there is one bit of cautionary data here, and it is likely to be on Norris’ mind: That blue bit at the start of the lap. Verstappen was quicker into Turn 1 on his flying lap than Norris was. This is due in part to Norris coming off the throttle before Verstappen does. At this point, right where that blue stretch begins illustrating where Verstappen was quicker, Norris is at 50% throttle, while Verstappen is still at 100%:

As mentioned above this is Norris’ third Grand Prix pole position of the season, but he has yet to convert any of those P1 starts into an opening-lap lead, let alone a victory. It was a question put to Norris during the post-qualifying FIA Press Conference on Saturday by Nate Saunders of ESPN.

“Honestly, stats to me don’t mean a lot. Yeah, I mean, you kind of get respect with stats and you lose respect maybe with certain stats, but just numbers on the screen, honestly, don’t mean a lot from that perspective to me. Of course, I care, but they don’t mean a lot,” said Norris. “They don’t impact me. So what people write and come up with and those kind of things are different. It’s like the overtaking awards and stuff. You’re always going to get more overtakes when you qualify terribly. You’re going to have more chances to go forward.

“I’ve started on towards the front a lot of times. I know my stats are not the best for that. And more often than not, I’ve kind of gone backwards rather than holding positions. But that’s just what I’ve done so far. And I’ve worked hard and working hard to try and change that. But it’s not something that affects me,” added the McLaren driver. “I’m not going to go out tomorrow to try and suddenly prove people wrong or something. I’m just going to crack on and do what I got to do. So yeah, people can write what they want. They can have their own opinions. A lot of these things are true and are facts to people. But yeah, it’s more just use them to my advantage and improve on my weaknesses. Simple as that.”

It is also worth noting that the difference between a flying lap — as Verstappen laid down during qualifying for the above data — and the start to an F1 race is significant. Verstappen may not have the same advantage down into Turn 1 on Sunday as he did during qualifying on Saturday.

Norris was dominant over the flying lap on Saturday, and the data backs up his pole position.

If he can convert that into an opening-lap lead, and his second Grand Prix win?

That might be truly dominant.