Verdict from Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff: “That’s what cost us pole”

The gaps between the top drivers were also narrow in the final practice session for this historic Grand Prix: Lando Norris secured his 18th Formula 1 pole position; a lead of just one-tenth of a second was enough to finish ahead of the two Mercedes drivers, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli – meaning, for the second race in a row following Hungary, there is no Mercedes on the front row of the grid.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff had this to say about the thrilling qualifying session in the dunes of Zandvoort on the North Sea coast: “The Hungaroring and Zandvoort have never been our favourite circuits; apparently, our car has a bit of its own DNA there.”

“I’m actually quite happy with this result, because at times during the second qualifying segment it looked as though we were a long way off the top. Neither driver managed to stay error-free either. But that’s just how it goes.”

“The layout of the Zandvoort circuit means that, in tomorrow’s race, position will be the key factor. We want to score plenty of points.”

“We made a small mistake with George in the middle section of the lap, which cost us pole position. He admitted that straight away. With Kimi, on the other hand, the mistake was in the first sector, where he lost at least a tenth of a second. And when we see in the end that the gap to Norris was a tenth, pole position was within reach.”

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Zandvoort: Das Rennen

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23.08.2026 - 13:00

Has Mercedes lost the lead it built up in the first part of the season in the fierce development race against McLaren and Ferrari? Doesn’t the brand with the star now urgently need to step up its game? Toto Wolff says: “That won’t happen in the next few races, but when we head to South-East Asia, we’ll be taking a bigger step forward – specifically for Malaysia.”

“There’ll also be an engine update for Monza, although we’ll be at a disadvantage there as we’ll have to start from the back of the grid with Kimi and the fitting of the new power unit. That’s obviously disappointing.”

The last five Zandvoort Grands Prix have all been won from pole position, which bodes well for frontrunner Norris. How does Mercedes intend to change this statistic? Toto Wolff: “We’ve shown good pace in the endurance runs, and our pace in the sprint was decent too. But we also know that if we can’t get past Norris at the start, it’ll be very difficult.”