George Russell fights back to F1 sprint pole on the Dutch Grand Prix as he admits confidence wasn’t his highest as he came in into the weekend, but he hasn’t forgotten how to drive.
While the likes of Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc took turns to set alight the timesheets, it was Mercedes’ Russell who stole the last lap thunder to secure a F1 sprint pole in Dutch GP at Circuit Zandvoort, ending his P1 drought.
Amid struggles in F1 2026 to be third in the drivers’ standings, especially against current and former teammates Antonelli and Hamilton, Russell has found a light to his problems with sprint pole after setting a 1m11.567s lap, just 0.041s quicker than Norris and 0.055s than Leclerc.
Russell hasn’t forgotten how to driveHe can’t remember the last time he topped a timesheet, be it even a practice session. While he understands it only a sprint, but this reminded him that he’s still got it and hasn’t forgotten how to drive. “Yeah, absolutely, you know, it’s been a little while since I’ve been top of the timesheets in any session, to be honest,” said Russell speaking to F1 TV.
“I can’t even remember the last time. So, it’s good to remind myself I still got it and haven’t forgotten how to drive, and the break came at a good point. Of course, it’s only a sprint session, sprint session, still got the job to do tomorrow. The main qualifying is going to be the key one and McLaren look really fast, Ferrari look quick.
“It’s been a real surprise to us as a team these past couple of races, but yeah, we’re in a good spot,” summed up Russell, who admitted to feeling under confident coming into the Dutch GP weekend. He took this as the first race of a F1 season and did not overthink things.
Russell was under confident coming into Dutch GP but took it like Race 1 of a F1 seasonA right frame mind can do wonders, which is exactly what happened with Russell in SQ3. Until that point, he was there or thereabouts, but he set the best time when it mattered. “I’ve got to be honest, I came into this weekend with a real open mind because I had no idea how it was going to go,” he said.
“You know, confidence level wasn’t exactly at my highest, but just trying to remember that feeling of what I needed from myself and the car, and just go in and almost treat it like the first race of the season again and not overthink things. And that seems to work well for me.
“It’s very difficult to actually put those words into action, but I always know when I’m in the right frame of mind coming into Q3, I can always deliver. It’s just ensuring I’m in that right frame of mind ahead of that point,” summed up Russell, who wants a good start in order to lead.
Cautions about Ferrari’s race paceThe start is crucial considering how difficult it is to overtake in the narrow Zandvoort circuit. It will be key to translate a good sprint qualifying into a good result, so that he can take it into the main F1 qualifying and the grand prix on Sunday. He feels Ferrari’s race pace looked stronger than Mercedes’.
“I think just a good start, to be honest,” said Russell. “I think it’s going to be a very challenging circuit to overtake. The Ferrari’s race pace looked exceptionally strong this morning. We looked quite offset, to be honest, in the order of, three or four tenths. So, we’ll see if that translates into tomorrow, but a clean start and that should be enough.”
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