Lando Norris was agonisingly pipped to pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix in a setback to his world title hopes.

The Englishman lost out to his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, the world championship leader, by an infinitesimal 0.012 of a second, despite having set the fastest time in all three practice sessions.

Piastri’s pole lap of 1min 08.662sec was the quickest time ever around Zandvoort. ‘Peaking at the right time,’ as the Australian called it.

The grand prix looks Piastri’s to lose on the banked track buffeted by wind (and which saw a fox hop across it midway through qualifying). Since the reintroduction of Zandvoort in 2021, victory has been clinched from pole on each occasion – three times by Max Verstappen until Norris broke the home favourite’s monopoly last year.

Although Piastri could not improve on his first flying lap in the shootout for pole, his existing time was still good enough as Norris’s best lap was also achieved at the start of Q3, the gusts blowing in off the North Sea playing their disruptive part.

With 10 races, including Sunday’s remaining, Piastri holds a nine-point lead over Norris, who has won three of the last four rounds and finally gained some momentum.

Lando Norris was pipped to pole position by Oscar Piastri ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix

Norris lost out to his McLaren team-mate by an infinitesimal 0.012 of a second

Piastri’s pole lap of 1min 08.662sec was the quickest time ever around Zandvoort

Verstappen was third quickest for Red Bull and will share the second row with Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar, who was a very impressive fourth. The 20-year-old Frenchman is the star rookie of the year, no doubt.

George Russell will start fifth for Mercedes. Charles Leclerc, 0.678sec off the top, was sixth best, a place ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who was 0.728 behind Piastri.

Russell’s Mercedes’ team-mate Kimi Antonelli missed out on the final phase after managing only the 11th quickest time, one slot ahead of Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda. They are both very much second fiddles to their more illustrious team-mates, the gulf painfully wide.

It was a poor day for Lance Stroll in a half-decent Aston Martin. The Canadian, who had spun in practice, ran on to the grass at Turn 13 and went hard into the barriers.

His car was not badly damaged enough to be confined to the gravel and he returned to the pits. His crew worked post-haste trying to complete the necessary repairs against the clock. But the task was beyond them and Stroll stepped out of the cockpit before the end of Q1, with no time set. A missed opportunity.

Haas’s British driver Ollie Bearman will start 19th, a place ahead of Stroll.