Red Bull's Max Verstappen grabbed the pole position Saturday afternoon for his home Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, Netherlands, 20 miles outside of Amsterdam. Verstappen took the final spot from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc with a blazing final lap that notched the native Dutchman his 17th pole of his F1 career and enthralled the hometown crowd.

The gap between Verstappen and Leclerc was a mere 0.021s around the narrow circuit of Zandvoort.

"When you watch elite sportsmen at the top of their game they can really turn it on under pressure and Max did just that," said Red Bull's Christian Horner.

"It was a tiny margin but a vital one for tomorrows race," added Horner.

Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz, qualified third.

"We can be reasonably happy with how qualifying went, but there's also an element of regret," said Laurent Mekies, Ferrari Sporting Director. "We're pleased to be back fighting for pole position down to the nearest thousandths of a second with both our cars, but obviously, when you come that close to pole you would like to have actually taken it."

Verstappen's teammate, Sergio Perez, qualified fifth - splitting the W13's of Mercedes where Lewis Hamilton will start in the fourth position and his teammate, George Russell, will start sixth.

Hamilton may have had a shot at the pole but his progress was denied a chance by a late spin out from Red Bull's Sergio Perez.

'It was frustrating not to have the chance to improve our times on the final run of Q3, we were a tenth up on Verstappen and Leclerc so Lewis was in contention for the pole here," said Mercedes Racing's Toto Wolff. "Unfortunately, [Perez] pushed it a lot and lost it but it's not his fault. It's just a decision you take."

"That final lap was a good one, coming into the final sector I was definitely up and I saw the car facing the opposite direction and had to lift, that lap could have been good enough for at least third but I'll see if I can replace that tomorrow," said Hamilton.

"I was pushing it to the limit on the final lap of Q3 and I just went over the limit a little, it's a shame," said Perez. "I went a bit too hot into the final corner and in the end I was lucky not to damage the car. I touched the throttle too early; I just kissed the gravel and unfortunately, I lost the rear end."

McLaren's Lando Norris qualified seventh followed by an impressive performance of Haas driver, Mick Schumacher, who qualified eighth.

Schumacher's Q3 program mirrored Q2, a run on scrubs followed by a final attack lap on fresh rubber.

"It's great to be in Q3 and obviously we're very happy with our performance," said Schumacher. "It's unexpected as I think we were expecting to go out in Q2 but to get to Q3 and repeat the lap time we did in Q2 was definitely decent, and we now have a good starting position for tomorrow."

AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda qualified ninth.

Aston Martin's Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten. Stoll retired with five minutes to go in Q3.

"It is a shame that we had the hydraulic issue in Q3 because we had the pace for a top-eight result today - and that would have been great given our recent difficulties in qualifying," said Stroll.

Charles Leclerc was quickest in the morning practice session, just 0.066 quicker than George Russell.

*********************
QUALIFYING RESULTS 
*********************

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:10.342	135.444 mph
2	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:10.363	0.021
3	Sainz		Ferrari		1:10.434	0.092
4	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:10.648	0.306
5	Perez		Red Bull	1:11.077	0.735
6	Russell		Mercedes	1:11.147	0.805
7	Norris		McLaren		1:11.174	0.832
8	Schumacher	Haas		1:11.442	1.100
9	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:12.556	2.214
10	Stroll		Aston Martin	No Time	
11	Gasly		AlphaTauri	1:11.512	
12	Ocon		Alpine		1:11.605	
13	Alonso		Alpine		1:11.613	
14	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:11.704	
15	Albon		Williams	1:11.802	
16	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:11.961	
17	Ricciardo	McLaren		1:12.081	
18	Magnussen	Haas		1:12.319	
19	Vettel		Aston Martin	1:12.391	
20	Latifi		Williams	1:13.353