Formula 1 Live Ticker: Sprint Pole for George Russell in Zandvoort

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The world champion can live with P2 and explains: “I am quite satisfied, it is still a good position. It was a decent lap. Considering how close it was, I could just as well have been first – or also fourth or fifth.”

Nevertheless, he is “of course a bit disappointed that I ended up in P2 instead of P1”. He explains that after switching to the soft tires in SQ3, he perhaps did not get the maximum out of the tires.

“Maybe I could have pushed a bit more, but otherwise the car performed well and seems to be building on its strong performance from Budapest,” he says confidently.

“There are many positive aspects, and hopefully this will continue for the rest of the weekend,” says Norris.

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Although the Scuderia only landed on P3 and P7, Toto Wolff fully counts on Ferrari tomorrow in the sprint and also in the race on Sunday. On Sky he says: “I think the important topic will be the long run.”

Because that looked “much stronger at Ferrari in FT1 than at all others. So we want to see how we manage that tomorrow,” says Wolff. Meaning: A Russell win will not be a foregone conclusion despite pole.

The Brit also surprisingly landed as seventh far back – especially since he was almost half a second slower than his teammate in P3. “Unfortunately not a good session,” he reports himself.

“FT1 felt good. We made small adjustments to the car, but when we went into qualifying, it was a completely different car. So we have to find out what went wrong,” he ponders.

They will now look at the data to correct that for tomorrow.

The Mercedes team boss just revealed on Sky: “Kimi lost 20 points [downforce] due to a hole in the floor. But we were able to patch it, and afterwards it looked like everything was completely intact again.”

“The gaps are so tight, and he made a small mistake in turn 11 by giving too much gas when entering – and that can happen quickly,” explains Wolff.

Meaning: Antonelli’s car was indeed damaged after the incident in SQ1. According to Wolff, however, that was not necessarily the reason for his comparatively poor result.

In FT1, the Italian was still the fastest man. So it is quite surprising that he only landed in P5. Expert Anthony Davidson suspects that the near-crash in SQ1 had something to do with it.

“Kimi surprised me. He must have suffered damage after his previous excursion, but maybe this slight loss of confidence also affected him,” said the former Formula 1 driver on Sky.

We are curious what the championship leader himself will say later.

Report

Result

Sprint starting grid

In a few minutes, the sprint qualifying in Zandvoort will begin and we will shift the action back to our session ticker for now. So there is a short break here, after the end of qualifying it will continue here as usual with the voices from Friday.

And if you want to know how to watch Formula 1 live this weekend, you can find out here!

Just before the sprint qualifying, let’s quickly take a look at the sky. After it rained briefly earlier, it is currently dry again. This can change quickly in Zandvoort, but currently it looks like a dry qualifying.

There is no official information yet. Laurent Mekies explained earlier on Sky that the plan is to have the Frenchman back in the car in Monza. But it is still “too early” to say for sure.

If it doesn’t work out, Red Bull will probably continue to rely on Lawson.

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That concludes today’s press conference without any major topics. In about an hour and a half, the sprint qualifying will continue on the track. Let’s see what the weather does then …

Now it’s about whether refueling should be allowed again in the future. A discussion that regularly comes up in Formula 1. However, all three team bosses clearly oppose it.

Bayer explains that extensive studies have even been conducted on this – and the conclusion was that refueling would not really improve the show.

Williams and Haas are currently at the back of the field. And both team bosses agree that there will be no big leaps forward this year.

Vowles initially explains that Williams is “too far away” to really catch up again in 2026. Therefore, the big focus is already on 2027.

It looks similar at Haas. Although Komatsu announces updates for Monza, he also makes it clear that the gaps this year are so big that no miracles can be expected.

That brings us to the press conference. The Racing Bulls CEO is sure that Yuki Tsunoda will do well on his comeback. He has kept fit and is “well prepared,” he emphasizes.

At the same time, he reveals that it was never an option to promote Arvid Lindblad to Red Bull for this race. Since he is still in his rookie season, that was not an issue.

A quick weather update: Formula 1 chose a dry window for its training earlier. Because it rained before FT1, and right now the F1 Academy training is also taking place under slightly wet conditions.

There are about two hours left until the sprint qualifying of the top class.

In ten minutes, the team bosses’ press conference in Zandvoort will take place. The following participants are present today:

Ayao Komatsu (Haas)
Peter Bayer (Racing Bulls)
James Vowles (Williams)

If there are exciting statements, we will deliver them here in the ticker as usual.

This week, Williams announced that they will also start in 2027 with Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz. Team boss James Vowles admits: “[I was] worried about losing both, because they are drivers of world champion caliber who deserve the chance to fight for podiums or more.”

“We did not deliver that,” he admits and emphasizes: “If we make setbacks, it is not only a surprise for the drivers but for everyone. And that always carries the risk that we lose them.” He is therefore “grateful” that both remain loyal to the team.

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