Written by Mark Gero. Edited by Joe Murphy
With the season returning following a three-week break, Friday practice for the Dutch Grand Prix was a day of cool and dry weather, along with two red flag sessions, a number of cars beached and Lando Norris setting both of his best times in both sessions. The Briton clocked a 1:09:890 ahead of a surprising Aston Martin with Fernando Alonso in second, who split the Woking entries as championship leader Oscar Piastri finished the day in third.
George Russell was the best of the rest, finishing in fourth in his Mercedes, along with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen ending up fifth on his home circuit. Both Ferrari’s of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc took sixth and eighth, respectively, which was an improvement as both had a horrible opening session in the morning.
The second Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda finished seventh, proving that he can get close to his Dutch teammate. Alpine’s Franco Colapinto also proved that he should retain his seat for the French team, coming out late in the session on soft tyres and taking ninth place. Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg rounded up the top ten.
The afternoon session began with a quick virtual safety car as the rain was expected to arrive within 12 minutes of the session. But the rain never came, as the front pushed along the coast and missed the circuit, which gave the drivers no use for rain tyres.
With 48 minutes left in the afternoon session, the first red flag came out as Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll hit the wall at Hugenholtz corner and damaged the car heavily. A VSC appeared again, this time a little longer than the first, as the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar lost power and pulled off the back part of the circuit. The final red flag came out with 21 minutes left when Williams Alex Albon went wide at Tarzan and went into the gravel, damaging his car’s front wing and beaching his vehicle.
The opening session was just as eventful, as Hamilton spun and flat-spotted all his tyres, while Tsunoda also went off the track. The main event of the session happened right at the very end, as Verstappen, like Albon later on, overshot Tarzan at the conclusion of the session and beached his Red Bull.
For the rest of the weekend, the circuit expects to be dry and windy, with the possibility of rain more likely for Sunday afternoon.
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