Lando Norris made short work of a short lap with an exquisite piece of execution for pole position at the Dutch Grand Prix. For all that he was flawless over the single lap on the undulating challenge across the dunes of Zandvoort, the moment of truth still awaits in delivering under the intensity of when the lights go out on Sunday, a challenge where he has been found wanting this season.

McLaren’s Norris beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen into second place by three and a half tenths of a second, an absolute chasm. The Briton delivered with a breathtaking lap of precision that Verstappen, struggling for balance and confidence in his car all weekend, had no answer for. Even his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, was no match, finishing in third.

Norris has a second Formula One win in his grasp but to pull it off he must first hold that lead from the off. He was at pains to insist the two poor starts that cost him potential victories this season had not left him in any way “desperate”, but it is all but impossible not to acknowledge the pressure on him to deliver this time will be intense.

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He claimed his first pole of the season in Spain and then berated himself for not making a better start, which he believed cost him the win. Last month in Hungary, also on pole, he had a problem with his shift into second gear off the line, which cost him the lead to Piastri, who went on to win.

Norris must dictate from the front if he is to take advantage and close the gap to Verstappen, who leads him by 78 points in the championship. The McLaren has the pace to control the race if Norris holds the edge on the short run to Tarzan, the tight right-hander of turn one.

Norris was insistent the issue was not dominating his mind. “I know my starts have not been my forte,” he said. “I have missed out on a couple of races, maybe it looks slightly worse than what it has been over a course of a season. There have been a couple of times when it’s not been quite where they needed to be and a couple of times that has been on the front row. I feel confident I have put in a good amount of work to make my starts better and tomorrow is a new day.”

Norris took his debut win at the Miami GP in May but, despite having arguably the quickest car on the grid, since then has yet to take the flag again, let down by minor errors on his behalf and that of the team. To take the title fight to Verstappen with 10 rounds remaining it is imperative he takes points off the Dutchman at every opportunity. Nonetheless, he said he felt no pressure.

“I’m working hard to win. I’m not desperate, desperation doesn’t succeed to anything. I had places to work on over the winter, over the summer. Tomorrow is the biggest place for it all to show.”

It was the final laps in Q3 that proved decisive in qualifying. After a weekend of on-and-off rain, the track was still rubbering in as the session progressed with grip improving, reaching its peak at the death. Norris’s final lap was an absolute thriller, he wrangled his car to the very edge of its and the circuit’s limits with a time of 1min 9.673sec.

It was unmatchable by Verstappen who said he was “never in the fight for pole” as the Red Bull continued to demonstrate its balance problems, an area where it is particularly struggling on the high-downforce circuits.

There was huge disappointment, too, for Lewis Hamilton who was knocked out in Q2 and finished in 12th place. On his final lap, Hamilton had a very poor first sector, struggling with tyre temperature that proved costly and he dropped three-tenths. It was a deficit he could not overcome and was enough to push him out of the top 10. Worse was to follow, however, when he was given a three-place grid penalty almost four hours after qualifying, for impeding Sergio Pérez during the session, relegating the British driver to 14th after Alex Albon was dropped from eighth to 20th. George Russell was in fourth with Red Bull’s Pérez in fifth.

Albon was a very impressive eighth for Williams but was later disqualified from qualifying after the floor of his car was adjudged to have breached “regulatory volume”. He will have to start from the pit lane.

Charles Leclerc was sixth for Ferrari, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in seventh and ninth for Aston Martin and Pierre Gasly in 10th for Alpine. Carlos Sainz was in 11th for Ferrari, Yuki Tsunoda 13th for RB and Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen in 14th and 15th for Haas.

Williams’s Logan Sargeant suffered a major crash in final practice, severely damaging his car, which also caught fire. The team were unable to repair it in time and he will start from the back of the grid.

Daniel Ricciardo was in 15th for RB, Esteban Ocon in 16th for Alpine, Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou on 18th and 19th for Sauber.