2026 DUTCH GRAND PRIX – SPRINT RACE & QUALIFYING REPORT
August 22, 2026 — Zandvoort, The Netherlands — The Cadillac Formula 1® Team took to the track today for the penultimate Sprint Race of the 2026 calendar, followed by Qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix. Valtteri Bottas and Checo Perez crossed the line in P19 and P21, respectively, in the Sprint Race, gathering valuable data ahead of tomorrow’s 72-lap Dutch Grand Prix. Following the Sprint, the team quickly turned its attention to Qualifying, where Bottas secured P21 and Perez P22 after a competitive session. The Dutch Grand Prix gets underway at 3 p.m. local time tomorrow. The team will aim to maximize learnings and seize available opportunities around Zandvoort’s 14-turn, 4.259-kilometre circuit.
Checo Perez:
Sprint Race Started: P20, Finished: P21, Fastest Lap: 1:17.462 Qualifying Position: P22, Q1: 1:14.600
“We had a hydraulic issue this morning, but the team did a great job to get the car back out for the Sprint, and we were able to show some promising pace. It’s a bit unfortunate that we’ve lost some competitiveness compared to this morning because of the changes we did, when we were able to get a lot out of the car. We’ll have to see what we can do tomorrow, but the pace we showed today gives us some encouragement. It’s still very early days for Marcin in the team, but he brings a lot of experience and strong leadership, so I’m confident he’ll help push us in the right direction over the coming weekends.”
Valtteri Bottas: Sprint Race Started: P19, Finished: P19, Fastest Lap: 1:17.710 Qualifying Position: P21, Q1: 1:14.371
“In the Sprint Race we were hoping that we could fight with Aston Martin, but it seemed like they had the upper hand. We’ll see where we are in terms of race pace for tomorrow over a longer duration, but hopefully we can challenge them and even Williams. Regarding Qualifying, it’s never nice to see us at the back, but the gaps are not huge, so we’ll keep chipping away to improve the car and try our best tomorrow.”
Marc Hynes, Chief Racing Officer
“It was a clean session for the team, and we ran different approaches across the two cars to generate useful information and valuable learning for future car development. The pace we showed is representative of where we are at this stage, but we were able to resolve the issues from earlier in the weekend and operate positively throughout the session. We’ll continue to build from here and maximize what we can achieve in tomorrow’s race. As we’ve seen today, the Zandvoort conditions are changeable - if we are agile there could be opportunities ahead.”