Sprint Pole on Friday in Zandvoort

• George Russell claimed pole position for tomorrow’s F1 Sprint at the Dutch Grand Prix with teammate Kimi Antonelli P5.

• The field returned from the summer shutdown to overcast skies and drizzle for FP1, with the teams getting their first running in official low grip conditions.

• It soon dried though and the rest of the practice hour was spent on slick tyres; Kimi ended the session P1 with George P3 but a close field emerging.

• Kimi suffered a trip through the gravel in SQ1 but successfully navigated his way to SQ3 alongside George; whilst the Italian suffered some floor damage the team worked hard to repair it.

• In SQ3, George set the pace that wouldn’t be beaten with a 1:11.567 to grab P1. Kimi was just two tenths slower but that left him P5 in a tight session.

• Tomorrow’s action begins with the 24-lap Sprint before Qualifying for the Grand Prix follows later in the afternoon.

George Russell

It's been a while since I've been at the top of the timesheets in any session, so it's nice to remind myself that I can still do it and that I've still got it! The summer break came at a good time and gave me the opportunity to reset and come into this weekend with a fresh mindset. I arrived here with an open mind because my confidence wasn't at its highest level, so I've tried to approach this weekend as though it's the first race of the season, not overthink things and focus on the basics. So far that seems to be working well.

Of course, this is only Sprint Qualifying though and the main Qualifying session tomorrow is the one that really matters. McLaren look very quick and Ferrari also seem strong from what we saw in FP1, so we know there's plenty of competition around us.

Overtaking is always a challenge around this circuit, so a clean start will be important if we're going to maximise the result in the Sprint. For now, it's an encouraging opening to the weekend, but there's still a lot of work to do.

Kimi Antonelli

On my first lap in SQ1, I carried a little bit too much speed into the final corner and picked up some damage. That cost us some performance and, even though the team did what they could to repair it, I was struggling quite a lot in the low-speed corners. Once you've had a moment like that, it can be difficult to rebuild the confidence and put everything together. Even so, the gaps were very small, so there are still positives to take from the session.

We'll focus now on doing the best race we can in the Sprint. It's going to be difficult because the field is so close at the front and overtaking won't be easy, but we'll look to maximise every opportunity and make up as much ground as possible. Most importantly, we'll use it to gather information and put ourselves in the strongest position for Qualifying later in the day.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

Well done to George and the team. It's good to come back from the break and kick off with a Sprint pole and hopefully we can carry that form into the rest of the weekend.

FP1 was straightforward. We had expected more rain than arrived, so our plan ended up being a bit compromised. Broadly speaking though, we managed to cover most of our work across both the long run and single lap. The car seemed to be in a good window, so we didn't make too many changes going into Sprint Qualifying.

Kimi went off at turn 13 with a gust of tailwind and did a bit of damage to the floor of his car in SQ1. We did what we could to repair it in session but ultimately it put him on the back foot. George had a more straightforward time off it, but we didn't really look like we were contenders for pole until his final effort. It was an impressive effort and a well-deserved P1 after such a good lap.

We've got a few things to investigate in terms of performance. We don't look strong in the faster corners, so we need to understand what's causing that ahead of Qualifying. Equally, our long run looked a bit off the pace to Ferrari in FP1. We will find out tomorrow morning whether that's real but certainly we can see it's very tight, and we will need to get everything out of the W17 if we want to win on Sunday.

FP1 Result

Sprint Qualifying Result