Piastri pips title rival Norris to Dutch GP pole

Dutch Grand Prix

Venue: Zandvoort Dates: 29-31 August Race start: 14:00 BST on Sunday

Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra; live text updates on BBC Sport website and app

Oscar Piastri pipped McLaren team-mate Lando Norris to pole position at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Piastri turned the tables on Norris, who had appeared the quicker McLaren driver all weekend, by 0.012 seconds as their title battle continues to be intensely close.

The Australian leads Norris by nine points in the championship with 10 races remaining.

Both times were set on their first laps in final qualifying at Zandvoort. Norris was actually quicker than Piastri by 0.004secs on their final runs, but neither driver improved on their initial attempt.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen took third, 0.263secs slower than Piastri, while Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar put in the best performance so far of his impressive rookie season to qualify fourth.

Mercedes' George Russell took fifth, ahead of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Leclerc had trailed Hamilton pretty much all weekend but beat the seven-time champion by 0.05secs when it mattered.

Piastri said: "That's the definition of peaking at the right time. There have just been a couple of corners where I have not been able to go faster, I still didn't do that but I found some time in other places."

Norris said: "It's close. It's been close the whole weekend so easily could go one way or the other. A little bit disappointing to not be on pole but not the end of the world either."

Behind the Ferraris, Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson took eighth, ahead of the Williams of Carlos Sainz and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso.

The promise Alonso showed in practice on Friday, when he split the McLarens, faded, as it was always likely to. But he would have been seventh ahead of Hamilton had he managed to repeat the fastest lap he managed in the second session.

The Spaniard's team-mate Lance Stroll crashed on his very first lap of qualifying after putting his right-hand wheels on to the grass approaching the final corner and starts last.

More to follow