Dutch Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Norris leads rainy session
It's back to school time in Formula 1. After a three-week break, we're back to orange at the top of the timesheets. Unfortunately for the Dutch fans who braved the stormy weather, Max Verstappen only managed second place, behind Lando Norris and ahead of Hamilton's Mercedes.
A very wet first part
At Kick Sauber, Robert Shwartzman replaces Valtteri Bottas for this first free practice session. This may not be the ideal time for him, as he only completed part of the session due to weather conditions. However, he did well, with a convincing end to the session.
Very few drivers set off during this first half hour of the session. Most of them completed an installation lap to assess the grip and perform a warm-up lap of their single-seater.
Only Charles Leclerc, Nico Hülkenberg, and George Russell ventured to do several laps in order to get more reference points in wet conditions.
Conditions improving after midday
At home, Max Verstappen waited for the arrival of clear skies to switch to intermediate tires.
His first lap ends with a spin, but the title champion quickly understood the limits of the track and quickly set the best time. Quickly followed by George Russell, this is how little by little the whole field decides to finally test themselves.
This allows the track to dry gradually, and allows drivers to attempt faster laps on soft tires.
A session ending on a dry track.
It took until the last quarter of an hour to finally see the cars evolve in large numbers.
The trend revealed by these latest times shows that McLaren has made effective modifications that put Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the lead. And this, “relatively” easily.
It should also be noted that Mercedes has maintained its speed acquired in Belgium, and was the only team regularly challenging McLaren’s times. George Russell completed a large number of very fast laps, but Hamilton remains close behind.
Red Bull appears to be struggling, with a uncooperative car and Sergio Perez consistently far behind his teammate Verstappen’s lap times.
As for Ferrari, they are quite far back in the standings, but have not yet revealed their full potential. The end of the session took place with both drivers on medium tires around the top 10.
The small surprise comes from the Haas drivers who enter the top 10 with a car that seems rather comfortable on this track with double banking.
The rankings
Upcoming
