Formula One 2026: George Russell wins Dutch Grand Prix sprint race from pole – live

“And now excuse me while I interrupt myself.” Every summer, the F1 season channels the late Murray Walker, taking a month off, and every summer we do excuse it, and welcome it back. Here we go for the last 11 or 12 race weekends of the season.

Eleven or twelve because we still don’t know where the season will end: it should be in Abu Dhabi on the first weekend in December, a week after Qatar, but if Donald Trump’s war with Iran rules out those two then a European finale will be arranged, likely at Imola. Which should be fun, given the seasonal weather in November/December.

We signed off in Hungary last month with a first win of the season for Lando Norris and McLaren. Now, it’s off to the dunes of Zandvoort, starting with the sprint race at 11am BST, with qualifying for Sunday’s main event coming up at 3pm BST.

I’ll be back from 10.30am for the buildup to the sprint, but for now, here are the times from sprint race qualifying and Giles Richards’ preview of the second half of the campaign.

1 George Russell 🇬🇧 Mercedes 1min 11.567sec
2 Lando Norris 🇬🇧 McLaren 1:11.608
3 Charles Leclerc 🇲🇨 Ferrari 1:11.622
4 Oscar Piastri 🇦🇺 McLaren 1:11.666
5 Kimi Antonelli 🇮🇹 Mercedes 1:11.794
6 Max Verstappen 🇳🇱 Red Bull 1:12.094
7 Lewis Hamilton 🇬🇧 Ferrari 1:12.191
8 Pierre Gasly 🇫🇷 Alpine 1:12.578
9 Gabriel Bortoleto 🇧🇷 Audi 1:12.583
10 Arvid Lindblad 🇬🇧 Racing Bulls 1:12.737

Eliminated in SQ2
11 Liam Lawson 🇳🇿 Red Bull 1:13.136
12 Yuki Tsunoda 🇯🇵 Racing Bulls 1:13.145
13 Franco Colapinto 🇦🇷 Alpine 1:13.439
14 Nico Hülkenberg 🇩🇪 Audi 1:13.616
15 Esteban Ocon 🇫🇷 Haas 1:13.893
16 Alexander Albon 🇹🇭 Williams 1:14.294

Eliminated in SQ1
17 Oliver Bearman 🇬🇧 Haas 1:14.728
18 Carlos Sainz 🇪🇸 Williams 1:14.738
19 Lance Stroll 🇨🇦 Aston Martin 1:15.391
20 Valtteri Bottas 🇫🇮 Cadillac 1:15.472
21 Sergio Pérez 🇲🇽 Cadillac 1:15.545
22 Fernando Alonso 🇪🇸 Aston Martin 1:16.014