Lando Norris must deliver at the Dutch GP after claiming pole position – it’s now or never to dispel his first-lap demons from the front and hunt down Max Verstappen for the title, writes JONATHAN MCEVOY

It’s time to deliver. That’s the inevitable task Lando Norris faces if he wants to have a shot at the world championship after taking a fantastic pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen, driving an equally brilliantly inferior Red Bull, qualified second, a gaping three and a half tenths behind the Briton. Oscar Piastri, in the second McLaren, backed up the pace of the front rows by taking half a second longer around stormy Zandvoort.

To win, Norris will almost certainly have to improve his poor reputation, having failed to finish first on the three previous occasions when he started from the front.

That means a good breakaway on the 235-yard sprint to Tarzan, as the first banked corner is known. He should definitely come out on top, a feat that would then allow him to channel the speed of his McLaren over the 72 laps.

Should he fail and Verstappen extend his lead to 78 points, it will be difficult to find a way out in the nine races remaining after the circus leaves the Netherlands.

The McLaren star needs to make a good start, something he struggled with from pole position.

Desperate? Of course he is. But last night he didn’t feel like it. ‘Desperation leads nowhere,’ he reasoned. ‘I want to win and I work hard for it, but I’m not desperate.

“It’s clear that my starts haven’t been my strongest point. But they weren’t bad. I just missed a few races when I was on the front row and that made it worse than it is.”

Another statistic he may not like is that no one has beaten Verstappen at his home circuit since the venue returned to the calendar in 2021.

The grandstands cheered the local hero loudly, thinking he had done enough for pole – before Norris came through the sea breeze, the only man to go under 70 seconds.

Questions are being asked about how well Norris is coping with the mounting pressure of the championship. Verstappen stood up for his mate, saying: ‘Lando is very, very quick and that’s what you need.

“It only gets better with experience. I’ve been fighting for world championships for a long time, but if the team is doing well and you’re riding well, it comes to you. I’ve never doubted him.”

Lewis Hamilton’s bad day went from bad to worse. The seven-time world champion could only manage 12th before dropping three grid positions for impeding Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

George Russell, on the other hand, was fourth in the other Mercedes.

Max Verstappen stood up for Norris amid questions about his ability to handle the pressure

Despite the support of the home crowd, he was three and a half tenths behind the 24-year-old

Lewis Hamilton only put his car in 12th place, but that is no longer a big surprise for the viewers

Logan Sargeant did not participate in qualifying after his car caught fire during practice

Logan Sargeant sat out qualifying after his car caught fire during practice. The American lost control of his Williams in wet conditions and hit the barriers hard before spinning 270 degrees. Bright orange flames shot out of the back of his battered machine.

The car could not be repaired in time, so Sargeant will start from the last grid position on Sunday. Unfortunately, that is not an unusual experience for him.

Sargeant’s teammate Alex Albon was later disqualified for running an illegal floor. Oh dear, shame all round at Williams.