Lance Stroll and Alex Albon crashed out in second practice to continue an incident-filled opening day to the Dutch Grand Prix weekend which saw Lando Norris narrowly outpace Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso at the top of the timesheet.
Four weeks after F1 was last on track in Hungary, the sport’s return to action produced one of the most chaotic Fridays of the session so far as gusty winds created tricky conditions at an undulating Zandvoort circuit which sits on the banks of the North Sea coast.
Norris stayed at the top of the timesheet in the second session thanks to a best lap of 1:09.890 although McLaren were denied successive practice one-twos by the impressive Alonso, the Aston Martin driver capping a competitive day for the team by finishing just 0.087s behind the Briton and 0.002s ahead of title leader Oscar Piastri.
After being outpaced by championship rival Norris on day one, Piastri headed to the stewards after the session following a pit-lane incident that saw him nearly collide with Mercedes’ George Russell.
The Australian initially went to turn into McLaren’s pit box from the front as normal but it was then signalled by a mechanic to drive to the other side, so they could push him back into the garage. But Piastri swerved back into the path of the oncoming Russell, who was forced to take avoiding action.
That incident came as the drivers returned to the pit lane for the session’s second red flag after Albon had beached his Williams in the Turn One gravel trap, damaging its front wing in the process after nudging the barriers.
Earlier, Stroll had crashed more heavily entering the banked Turn Three, doing major damage to his Aston Martin in the only apparent downside to the team’s otherwise impressive day.
Lance Stroll’s huge crash in his Aston Martin saw the red flag brought out during second practice
Aston Martin were the only team to show any semblance of a challenge to McLaren on the short-fuel runs.
Russell finished fourth fastest, 0.3s back on Norris, ahead of home favourite Max Verstappen, who was fifth and half a second adrift in his Red Bull.
Ferrari appeared to particularly struggle, lapping over 0.8s off the front-running pace. Lewis Hamilton spun in each of the day’s two sessions, although his sixth-quickest time was ultimately the Italian team’s best of Friday.
Lewis Hamilton’s struggles at Ferrari continued during Friday’s practice sessions as he suffered two massive spins
Hamilton finished a tenth quicker than eighth-placed Charles Leclerc, with Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda between the two Ferrari cars in seventh place.
Franco Colapinto took a promising ninth for Alpine just hours after Flavio Briatore, the team’s executive adviser, had admitted the Argentine’s form since being handed the seat at Jack Doohan’s expense in May was “not what I expect” from the 22-year-old.
Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10, with Kimi Antonelli 12th on his return to the track after beaching his Mercedes in the opening stages of Practice One. Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar stopped on track before setting a time due to an apparent power-unit problem.
Norris makes fast start – and are resurgent Aston a threat to chasing pack?
Having ended the first part of the season strongly by winning three of the four races before the summer break to close down Piastri’s championship advantage to just nine points, Norris appeared to pick up where he had left off on a track he dominated at last year.
“Today was a good day,” said Friday’s pacesetter. “You get back into things quite quickly.
“The car was handling well. I felt we made some good improvements from FP1 to FP2 but, at the same time, the others caught up more than we would like.
Title rivals and McLaren team-mates Lando Norris and Piastri gave their thoughts following Friday’s practice sessions at the Dutch Grand Prix
“Even the Aston and Fernando were more quick than they have been recently. A good start but a bit closer than we would like.”
That is because Alonso finished within a tenth of the runaway championship-leading team’s pace, with Aston Martin seemingly carrying on with the improved high-downforce performance which took the Spaniard to a season-best fifth in Hungary.
Could they now be even more of a threat to the front here?
“I feel more optimistic than some other Fridays,” said Alonso.
“Hungary was strong for us and now we are still showing some good pace. It’s good to see our times up there.
Following a strong P1 and P2, an optimistic Fernando Alonso thinks Aston Martin are in the mix to beat Ferrari and Red Bull at the Dutch Grand Prix
“I don’t think it’s within our reach to fight with the McLarens but maybe Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, they don’t seem that far away, so we will try to be in the mix.”
Taking the scalp of Red Bull for the second successive event certainly might not be out of the question after Verstappen admitted they were “still struggling with the same things”.
“We tried a lot of things with the car but it doesn’t seem to change anything in terms of my underlying problem,” said Verstappen, who is on a four-race run without a podium.
Verstappen thinks it ‘will be hard’ for Red Bull to reach the top five at the Dutch Grand Prix
“We will look overnight to find a bit more but I don’t expect a massive turnaround. It’s just tricky and the layout of the track doesn’t suit our problems we have with the car.
“It will be hard to be in the top five but we will see tomorrow.”
Sky Sports F1’s Dutch GP schedule
Saturday August 30
9.20am: F1 Academy Qualifying
10.05am: Dutch Grand Prix Practice Three (session starts at 10:30am)*
1pm: Dutch Grand Prix Qualifying build-up
2pm: DUTCH GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING
4pm: F1 Academy Race 1
Sunday August 31
9.35am: F1 Academy Race 2
10.50am: Porsche Supercup Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Dutch GP build-up
2pm: The DUTCH GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: Dutch GP reaction
*also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 returns after the summer break with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
