And now comes the Dutch national anthem. Will we be hearing it again in a couple of hours' time with a Verstappen victory.

It would be a piece of history if Max wins it as there has never been a Dutch driver winning the Dutch Grand Prix.

British drivers have had a lot of success here, with four wins for Jim Clark, three for Jackie Stewart, two for James Hunt and one apiece for Stirling Moss and Graham Hill.

Now is the time for a familiar part of the build-up to every Formula 1 race with their We Race As One video and their message of unity.

There's only a seven-point gap between Mercedes and Red Bull in the constructors' title. Who will be at the top at the end of the day?

Pirelli say those on the soft tyres will want to get to the 25-30 lap mark, before moving to the hard tyres.

Mercedes are in a nice position of being able to use varying strategies for Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to pile the pressure on to Max Verstappen.

It's a 72-lap race.

It's the three hardest compounds in the Pirelli range for the drivers here and all the top 10 start on the softs.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Strategy-wise, this expected to be a certain one-stop race - a two-stop is demonstrably slower. Overtaking is difficult - teams reckon harder even than Hungary, which would put Zandvoort third in the rankings, behind only Monaco and Singapore.

Pit-stop time loss is about 21-22 seconds; 13 under a safety car, of which teams reckon the likelihood is high. One key issue for teams is the tight pit-lane, cramped both for width and length, which could cause difficulties, especially under a safety car when lots of cars may come in together.

Both Williams cars have been in the points for both the past two races, but as we've mentioned it's a pitlane start for Nicholas Latifi.

George Russell qualified second last time out, but a trip to the gravel on Saturday ended his hopes of getting into Q3 and he's got to settle with a starting spot of 11th for him.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Teams normally head into a race with some idea of how they might stack up on competitiveness. But for Lewis Hamilton in Holland, that is not the case. An engine problem restricted him to just one flying lap in Friday practice, and he was not able to take part in the race-simulation runs, on which Max Verstappen had an advantage of around 0.4secs a lap over the sole Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.

“I haven’t done any long running,” Hamilton said, “so I don’t really know too much of what the track’s like with heavy fuel. I only have my reference from (Formula Three in) 2005 and I don’t remember that!

"No doubt it’s going to be tough. Just from watching these guys, I think Max and his team were quicker than us, I think, on the long run – but it’s not a track that you can particularly overtake in, so it’s going to be strategy tomorrow and how you can utilise the tyres. The start will be fun."

While this is what Max Verstappen had to say after qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton missed out on pole position by only 0.038 seconds, but is still having a wonderful time in his first F1 race in the Netherlands and posted this after qualifying.

Twelve races down, a potential 10 more to come and there's only three points between the top two.

Not sure if this hat is too practical, to be honest.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

FIA directive due to cramped pit lane. Any team that "impedes another car in the fast lane or prevents another car from stopping in or leaving its allocated pit-stop position may be considered an infringement of the principles of fairness" and a breach of the sporting code.

It's been 36 years since the last Dutch Grand Prix at the coastal venue of Zandvoort, the fans are in heightened spirits as they cheer their home hero on from pole.

Max Verstappen has been showing King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, and Queen Maxima, around the Red Bull garage before today's big race at Zandvoort.

And Pierre Gasly was understandably delighted with a starting spot of fourth.