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ZANDVOORT, Netherlands: Oscar Piastri found new pace to beat his teammate Lando Norris by just over one-hundredth of a second and take Formula 1 pole position for the first time in three months at the Dutch Grand Prix in qualifying on Saturday.

Piastri set the pace at the start of the final part of qualifying for Sunday’s race and Norris couldn’t quite match it, ending up .012 of a second off the pace as the title battle between the two McLaren teammates intensifies.

“That was the definition of peaking at the right time,” Piastri said. “It was looking like a little bit of a tricky weekend so far.”

It was the Australian’s fifth pole position of the year but his first since the Spanish Grand Prix, six races ago.

Norris, who won last year’s Dutch Grand Prix and was fastest in all three practice sessions this week, said it was “not the end of the world” to start second, and suggested small changes in the wind could have decided the result.

Piastri leads Norris by nine points in the standings with 10 races left of the season. Norris has closed the gap in recent months with wins in three of the last four races.

Verstappen improves

Defending champion Max Verstappen is set to start third for his home race. He’s third in the standings but a 97-point gap to Piastri means his title chances are remote.

Verstappen said it was “always very special” to compete in front of his home crowd and he was pleased with the improvement after a “tricky” time in practice.

“This is a really good step forward,” he said. “I hope that we can keep that up also going into the race tomorrow.”

Hadjar’s surprising fourth

Isack Hadjar was a surprise fourth for Racing Bulls in a career-best qualifying result for the French rookie, who is considered a contender for promotion to Red Bull next season as Verstappen’s teammate.

George Russell is fifth for Mercedes, while Charles Leclerc in sixth again outqualified his Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was seventh.

It’s going to be another difficult race for Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli after he qualified 11th. The Italian started his debut season strongly but has only been in the points in two of his last eight races.

Yuki Tsunoda was 12th in a result that doesn’t help his efforts to show he can stay on for next season at Red Bull.

Lance Stroll spun and crashed heavily into the barriers after getting two wheels on the grass. The Canadian was able to return his damaged Aston Martin to the pits but couldn’t continue and qualified last.

NYON: Manchester City face a trip north of the Arctic Circle in the middle of the European winter after the dates of this season’s Champions League games were published on Saturday.

City will play an away match at Norwegian champion Bodo/Glimt on Jan. 20, meaning Pep Guardiola and his team of mega-stars will face harsh temperatures at the 8,000-capacity Aspmyra stadium — a venue farther north than soccer’s top club competition has ever been.

Bodo/Glimt are a tournament debutant like Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty, whose first-ever Champions League match — at Sporting Lisbon — is the longest away trip in the competition’s history.

Kairat will have to travel across three time zones and more than 6,500 kilometers (4,000 miles) to Lisbon from Almaty, near Kazakhstan’s border with China, for the Sept. 18 game on the Champions League’s first matchday.

Almaty can have temperatures as low as minus-20 C (minus-4 F) in January — chillier even than Bodo/Glimt — so Club Brugge’s visit to Kairat on Jan. 20 could be the coldest game in Champions League history.

Paris Saint-Germain open the defense of their title at home to Atalanta on Sept. 17.

Kevin De Bruyne won’t have long to wait before his match against Man City, his former long-time club. He will make his return to Etihad Stadium on Sept. 18.