Russell staying grounded after Dutch sprint qualifying pole
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George Russell refused to get ahead of himself after clinching pole position for the sprint race at the Dutch Grand Prix, as "the big points" come on Sunday.
The Mercedes driver edged a tight contest for sprint pole, setting a lap time 0.041 seconds quicker than McLaren's Lando Norris, while Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was 0.055 seconds slower than Russell.
Oscar Piastri was also just 0.099 seconds off Russell's lap time, with the latter now taking sprint pole in the Netherlands, China and Canada this season.
Russell is third in the drivers' championship standings, 59 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli, after having issues with his car at both the Hungarian Grand Prix (seventh) and Belgian Grand Prix (DNF).
And after those woes, Russell knows Sunday's main race is what really matters at Zandvoort this weekend.
"It's great to be back here after the break. It's a circuit I love. It needs a lot of commitment," said Russell.
"It was a tough end to the first half of the year and I'm really happy to come back.
"McLaren look quick, Ferrari look quick but I'm glad to pull it off when it matted.
"It's only sprint qualifying. The big points [come] on Sunday, so I will try to carry this momentum into the weekend."
Back on top after the break pic.twitter.com/Q3GL63MNnY
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) August 21, 2026
Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, struggled after finishing 0.624 slower than Russell in seventh.
The Ferrari driver insisted he and his team will look at the data to see "what went wrong" following a positive practice session.
"Not a good session, unfortunately, this is the way it is," said Hamilton.
"Practice felt good. We made subtle adjustments to the car, but when we got into qualifying it was a completely different car, so we need to figure out what went wrong, and then we’ll do our best tomorrow.
"We’ll look at the data and then we’ll make a determination. We’ve just got to go through the data and figure it out.
"Charles was in a slightly different place to me, a bit closer to where I was, so that’s it."
