Max Verstappen completed part one of his perfect home race weekend by claiming pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix.
The local hero was imperious as he improved and improved with each flying lap, but in the end, only just beat his championship rival Lewis Hamilton in second.
Q1
The session began with disaster for Red Bull as Sergio Perez was eliminated in Q1 in 16th.
Checo was only seven-tenths off the pace set by Charles Leclerc for Ferrari but would be knocked out by a last gasp run by Lando Norris as the track conditions improved.
Sebastian Vettel was another surprise in 17th as his final run was destroyed by the two Haas' blocking the track at the penultimate corner.
Robert Kubica was 18th as he returned to the grid at Alfa Romeo following Kimi Raikkonen's positive Covid-19 test earlier on Saturday.
Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin completed the grid.
Q2
Q2 would see both Williams drivers cause red flags due to spins into the barrier.
George Russell was able to recover back to the garage after going off at Turn 13, but teammate Nicholas Latifi had a much bigger accident, slamming into the Tecpro barrier at Turn 8 to end the session early.
🚩 RED FLAG 🚩
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 4, 2021
Now it's Latifi into the barriers.
A big impact, but the Canadian radios to the team that he is ok#DutchGP 🇳🇱 #F1 pic.twitter.com/B20eotYqky
Even so, Russell will still start P11 with Lance Stroll 12th for Aston Martin. Lando Norris was one of the biggest losers from the red flags in 13th for McLaren.
Latifi was 14th and Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top 15.
At the front, Max Verstappen set the pace ahead of Charles Leclerc, while Mercedes sat fourth and fifth with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas having run scrubbed tyres.
All drivers opted for the soft compound tyre to start the race.
Q3
In the first run, Verstappen set the benchmark with a 1m08.9s, three-tenths clear of the Mercedes drivers.
The Red Bull driver improved again fractionally on his second flying lap, posting a 1m08.885s. And that would be just enough as Hamilton improved to be only 0.038s slower in P2.
Valtteri Bottas was third, with Pierre Gasly an impressive fourth for AlphaTauri ahead of the two Ferraris, as Charles Leclerc led Carlos Sainz.
YESSSS! 🥳
— Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN (@alfaromeoracing) September 4, 2021
That feels good! Antonio qualifies P7 for the #DutchGP! pic.twitter.com/BvUO3FnBJw
Antonio Giovinazzi equalled his best qualifying result in F1 in seventh for Alfa Romeo, with the two Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso eighth and ninth.
Daniel Ricciardo completed the top 10 in the McLaren.
At the front, it was all about Verstappen as he delighted the Orange Army with his seventh pole of the season in the Red Bull.
That puts Max in the perfect spot to go on and claim victory on Sunday around a Zandvoort track where overtaking is tough.
But with two Mercedes behind him, nothing is guaranteed yet.
Full results from qualifying can be seen below:
