Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner thought McLaren would 'steal' Max Verstappen's pole in the dying moments of Dutch Grand Prix qualifying. Verstappen's fastest lap was 0.537s quicker than Lando Norris, who lost two-tenths in the middle sector to the Dutchman with an error through Turn 7. This set Norris up for the rest of the Zandvoort lap, with his final sector slower and ultimately contributing to the gap at the end of the session. Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Horner explained: "I thought in conditions like that the McLaren seems to warm the tyres up pretty quickly, and I thought they were going to be a lot closer. "In these conditions on a damp track, you need to generate the [tyre] temperature. I thought that Lando or Oscar might have stolen it. "Then a whole bunch of others turned up as well and it was an interesting mix."
Harder session for Perez
Sergio Perez starts from seventh on the grid with his best lap 1.7 seconds adrift of his teammate. The Mexican has previously spoken about changeable conditions being one of his main weaknesses this season as he struggles to match Verstappen. "What do you say in conditions like that? It's the same for everybody, you just got to go out there and feel the grip and put a lap in," said Horner. "For whatever reason, he hasn't quite had the confidence that certainly Max had. I don't think anybody has had the confidence that Max has [this weekend]. "A harder session for him but then there is other drivers I didn't expect, Oscar [Piastri] for example, to be behind him."
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