Rand Norris set the pace in the opening practice session for the Dutch Grand Prix, with a foreshadowing pace show before McLaren’s teammate Oscar Piastri.
Norris required one run in soft to set the best time for the session at 1M 10.278 with three purple sectors. Piastri was next to him to kneel, but he pinched the fastest first split, but his lap fell in the final two-thirds of the circuit, leaving him almost half a second away from the car’s pace, prone to excessive understeering.
A second attempt with used soft tires allowed the Australians to improve their final sector, with the final effort kicking out 0.292 seconds from the pace of their teammates.
The McLaren driver was the only driver to see realistic competition for the top of the drying session. Lance’s walk came closest to the rest, placing him a 0.501S ad-lift on a soft, slow lap. For Canadians, there could have been a rap on the rap. The Canadian made their first attempt at a flying lap, ruined by snow horned swaying slowly on the racing line. But the walk would have also gained time by leveraging the evolution of Sandy Circuit tracks, setting his best laps far later than most of the field in the second half of the session.
Walking Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso closely followed a drift of just 0.062s in fourth place.
Alex Albon came in fifth despite hoping his Williams team will struggle with track composition this weekend. He was 0.893s from the pace, but that was enough to prevail the Max Barstappen in the Lead Red Bull racing car.
Verstappen was the early pacesetter of the medium, but was unable to follow the soft compound field and remained 0.94 seconds away from the pace. He then ended the session in the turn-off zone, the outflow zone at Tarzan Corner, in a strange incident after the checkered flag flew.
The Dutch had just performed a practice start when they were locked up in the first corner. The mistake sailed him out of the truck, where his car went to the beach on the lips of the service road of a gravel trap. George Russell had a similar trajectory that took a few minutes ago, without getting stuck after a pace of 1.108 seconds.
Carlos Sine also raked stones in his case at turn 11 on his way to the eighth and 1.18 seconds on the benchmark.
Gabriel Boltreto led the way to Sauber in 9th place with a 1.2-second attachment, keeping Alpine’s Pierre Guthrie 0.1 seconds ahead.
Racing Bulls teammates Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar were 11th and 12th place after Nico Hulkenberg.
Ferrari came in 14th and 15th in an incredibly uncompetitive session, with Charles Leclair leading Lewis Hamilton by 0.009, but nearly 1.7 seconds behind Norris’ McLaren.
“We’re miles away,” Leclair radioed in dismay.
Tsunoda managed to get through the gravel with Shikane early in the hour, but Red Bull Racing Driver was only 16th and 1.8 seconds better, but 0.9 seconds slower than his teammate Verstappen.
Isolo
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was in 20th after setting just six laps before beaching the car with gravel on the ninth turn.
result
