Verstappen qualifies sixth for Dutch GP sprint as Red Bull grip woes persist at Zandvoort

Max Verstappen qualified sixth for the Dutch Grand Prix sprint race at Zandvoort on Friday, finishing 0.527 seconds behind pole-sitter George Russell and admitting Red Bull remains short on grip and balance — the same problems that have dogged the team for much of the 2025 season.

The day had begun poorly for Verstappen, who was only 11th quickest in the sole practice session, 1.376 seconds off the pace set by Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes. He complained of poor gearshift quality, low grip, and an oversteer balance — issues that have surfaced repeatedly throughout the year.

Set-up changes ahead of sprint qualifying brought some improvement. Verstappen progressed through to the final SQ3 shootout and ultimately lined up sixth, edging ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari. “I guess we out-qualified one [frontrunning] car,” he told F1 TV after the session. “Just a bit tricky to find the grip, the balance. It was already a step forward from FP1, but of course still lacking a little bit to be further up the road.”

He added that the team needs to understand what more can be extracted from the car’s balance ahead of the sprint itself. “To find a bit more grip, really — a bit of balance, a bit of grip to close the gap a bit.”

Between practice and SQ1, Verstappen found just over seven tenths of a second, posting a 1m13.585s lap. His stand-in team-mate Liam Lawson went marginally quicker in SQ1 with a 1m13.420s, but Lawson’s SQ2 time of 1m13.136s was not enough to advance to the top-ten shootout. Verstappen’s 1m12.745s in SQ2 was good enough for eighth at that stage, behind the McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari drivers as well as Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.

In SQ3, Verstappen improved again to a 1m12.094s, but all the frontrunners bar Hamilton made similar gains, leaving him sixth on the sprint grid.

The session came on the same day Verstappen announced a contract extension keeping him at Red Bull until at least 2030. The long-term commitment removes some of the leverage he has previously wielded through credible links to rival teams, and his measured, resigned tone after qualifying suggested he is focused on working through the car’s limitations rather than applying external pressure. Red Bull has shown the ability to find significant performance overnight during race weekends this season, though not yet enough to restore the team to genuine race-win contention.