Verstappen’s third pole in a row puts him in a strong position to stretch his 18-point lead over Lewis Hamilton in Sunday’s ninth race of the Formula one season.

“Hopefully we can finish it off tomorrow,” said the 23-year-old, who was cheered on by a sea of Dutch fans at the first Grand Prix weekend to welcome back a capacity crowd since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Dutch driver’s teammate Sergio Perez will start on the second row alongside Hamilton’s Mercedes at the Red Bull-owned Spielberg circuit.

Verstappen topped the time sheets in Q1 and Q2, and then nailed the prime seat in the grid with a flying lap of 1:03.720s in Q3.

Norris was only denied his maiden pole by 0.048s, the talented 21-year-old British driver’s performance the latest sign of his team’s resurgence.

“I feel epic, this is cool! That was probably one of the best laps I have done, it puts us in a great position for tomorrow,” said Lando.