Lando Norris put the pace in the opening session of the Dutch Grand Prix prior to McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in an ominous show of Tempo.
Norris only needed one run on softs to determine his best time of the session at 1m 10,278s with three purple sectors. Piastri was put next to his lap, but although he squeezed the fastest first split, his lap fell over the last two -thirds of the circuit to leave him almost half a second in a car that seemed sensitive to excessive understeer.
A second attempt in used soft tires brought the Australian closer with an improved last sector, his last attempt to put him 0.292’s from his teammate’s pace.
The McLaren drivers were the only ones who looked in realistic position to surpass the session in the dry. Lance Stroll came closest to the rest with a late round on softs that put it 0.501s drift. There was probably more in the lap for the Canadian, who had spoiled his first attempt at a flying round by a slowly moving Yuki Tsunoda on the racing line. But Stroll would also have won some time by putting his best round in the session much later than the majority of the field, on the job evolution on the Sandy Circuit.
The Aston Martin teammate Van Stroll, Fernando Alonso, followed him closely, only 0.062s in fourth place.
Alex Albon finished fifth, even though he expected his Williams team to struggle this weekend with the track configuration. He was 0.893s from the pace, although that was enough to stay ahead of Max Verstappen in the Headrac Red Bull Racing car.
Verstappen was the early tempoter on mediums, but could not follow the field on the soft connection, giving him 0.94s of the pace. He then ended his session in the run-off zone in turn 1, Tarzan Corner, in a bizarre incident after the checkered flag had flown.
The Dutchman had just performed a practice start when he forgot in the first corner. The error sent him off the track, where his car was stranded on the lip of a service gel in the gravel trap. It was a similar process that George Russell had taken a few minutes earlier, albeit without getting stuck after he had set a round 1,108s of the pace.
Carlos Sainz also made the stones, in his case on bend 11, on the way to eighth and 1.18s behind the benchmark.
Gabriel Bortoleto led the road to Sauber in the ninth at 1.2s Drift, so he kept 0.1s for the Pierre Gasly from Alpine.
Racing Bulls teammates Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar were 11th and 12th for Nico Hulkenberg.
Ferrari dropped to the 14th and 15th in a surprising non -competitive session, where Charles Lewis Hamilton led with 0.009s, but almost 1.7s slower than Norris’s McLaren.
“We’re out for miles,” Leclerc is desperately rusted.
Yuki Tsunoda cut through the gravel at the Chicane early in the hour, but continued, although the Red Bull Racing driver was good for only 16th and 1.8s of the pace – 0.9s slower than teammate Verstappen.
Isol
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was 20th after he had only set six laps before he had stretched his car in the gravel in a painfully slow lock at turning 9. As he avoided a collision with the barriers, he did not walk a room to keep his momentum, so he was stuck and activated a red flag to collect his stuck flag.
Result
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