Russell takes pole position for Dutch GP sprint race

Key Highlights

• 055secs off pole, was happy with what he described as his "best qualifying lap of the year".
• "I had a couple of holes in the floor," Antonelli said.
• 365secs off Verstappen in the second part of sprint qualifying on his first experience of the Red Bull car.
• "A little bit of everything in qualifying," said Alonso, who is yet to make a decision on his future in F1 beyond the end of this year.
• The Briton said: "It has been a tough end to the first part of the year so I am really happy to be back.

Mercedes' George Russell took his first pole position for four races in qualifying for the sprint race at the Dutch Grand Prix.

The Briton, trailing Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli by 59 points in the championship, was 0.

041 seconds quicker than McLaren's Lando Norris in second.

Antonelli could manage only fifth, behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was sixth, ahead of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, who is second in the championship, 50 points behind Antonelli.

Russell's pole was the perfect start to the second part of the season for him, having lost ground to Antonelli in the three races before the summer break after his victory in Austria at the end of June.

The Briton said: "It has been a tough end to the first part of the year so I am really happy to be back.

"The lap felt really good.

It is always difficult in sprint qualifying because we have just a lap to put it together, but it all came together nicely.

"Russell was 0.

227secs quicker than Antonelli and has an opportunity in Saturday's shorter sprint race - which runs to about a third of the distance of a grand prix - to cut back into the Italian's points advantage.

He added: "It has been a little while since I was top of the timesheets in any session.

I can't even remember the last time.

It was good to remind myself I can still drive and the break came at a good point.

"But it's still just the sprint and the main qualifying will be the key one.

McLaren look really fast.

Ferrari look quick.

It has been a surprise to us as a team the last couple of races but we are in a good spot.

"I came into this weekend with a real open mind because I had no idea how it was doing to go.

"Confidence level wasn't exactly at my highest but just trying to remember the feeling I need from myself and the car and try to treat it like the first race of the season and not overthink things.

Norris, winner of the last race before the summer break in Hungary, said he felt he could have taken pole position had he got the most out of the soft tyres used on the final runs in the session.

"Really happy," Norris said. "Still a good position. It was a reasonable lap, a good qualifying, close between all the teams, which is exactly what we expected. But a little bit disappointing to be P2 rather than P1."

Leclerc, himself just 0.055secs off pole, was happy with what he described as his "best qualifying lap of the year".