Rand Norris was swept into the top spot in his second practice session with two red flags at the Dutch Grand Prix ahead of the unexpectedly competitive Fernando Alonso.
Norris reduced his FP hour by 0.4 seconds and reached the top of the session with the fastest lap of 1M09.89S. However, despite McLaren being an atmospheric favorite at Zandvoort, his fastest time was enough to defeat Alonso in just 0.087 seconds.
Aston Martin has been in strong shape all Friday, and Alonso has used the opportunity to split the McLaren driver at the top of the timesheet, taking advantage of a strong slipstream on the front straight.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri has been much closer to his first session teammate this time, rapping 0.089 over his sister car. All of these came from the final split.
Piastri also needs to see the stewards after a session at the pit lane incident. As the Australian rejoined the fast lane, Russell had to hit the brakes to avoid Piastri. However, Mercedes had no damage, but Russell finished fourth and 0.384 seconds at a pace.
Home favourite Max Verstappen was the fifth improvement, but the Dutch delayed 0.588 over Norris in the Red Bull racing car, which appears to not bring much confidence to the winner of the three-time Zandvoort.
Lewis Hamilton was the unexpected sixth, a major improvement in 15th place in FP1 despite spinning the car on his first flying lap in soft.
Britton had just set up the purple first sector when the car loosened through a tight turn nine. Hamilton tried to control the slide through the corner, but his left-wage tire touched the grass and sent him down the road. It ruined the lap, but not his tires.
The Tsunoda improved similarly, from 16th to 7th to 0.9 seconds, with a pace of 0.9 seconds. His margin to Verstappen was only 0.317.
Charles Leclerc took the second Ferrari to Hamilton for the eighth and 0.1 seconds.
Franco Colapinto led the way to Alpine on the 10th, in the ninth position ahead of Sauber’s Nico Halkenberg.
Oliver Baerman was 11th in Haas ahead of Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was lost to gravel during FP1 on his way to the 12th day. Gabriel Boltreto was ranked 13th ahead of Liam Lawson, Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz.
Alex Albon followed Sainz at Second Williams, but did not see the checkered flag after beaching the car with gravel on Turn 1.
Albon slid across the stone, tweaking the barrier and causing damage to his forewing. He was lucky to be stopped on the escape road, but in a hurry to turn the incident, he beached his car with stones, causing the second red flag of the session.
The first red flag was courtesy of Lance Stroll, and lasted just 11 minutes and six laps that afternoon before Aston Martin heavily exposed the barrier outside the Hugenholtz curve in Turn 3.
The walk was on a hot lap as his car put his understanding and career into the wall, with too much speed on the banked left-handed high line. Both right corners resulted in impact damage, which brought the smoldering Aston Martin back into the middle of the truck. A 10-minute red flag was called to clear the wreckage, and the walk was walking away from the unharmed scene.
Pierre Guthrie was the last driver in 19th place after two attempts on laps on soft tires were ruined by Albon’s red flag and a virtual safety car.
result
