Lando Norris headlined an ever-changing order in opening free practice at the Dutch Grand Prix, overcoming Max Verstappen’s late effort to go fastest.
Heavy winds and rain had lashed the Zandvoort circuit in the lead-up to the session, but proceedings nonetheless started on time – however, the uptake for early running was shared by few.
The circuit then began to dry, prompting a final burst of laps on soft tyres as circuit conditions improved throughout the hour-long practice session. An initial three-way shootout for the fastest time emerged between George Russell, Norris, and Oscar Piastri, the trio overlapping each other on the timing board with each lap on the ever-drying track.
At the flag, Verstappen made a play for the fastest time with his last lap of the session, but this was eclipsed by Norris on his final tour – landing on a 1m12.322s.
Amid the early wet conditions, Pierre Gasly emerged first on track and reported conditions were “wild with the wind”, followed by the Haas duo of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg.
Hulkenberg found the gravel at Turn 9 on his first lap, although managed to pull himself free of its clutches and returned to the pits. There were token runs in the opening 15 minutes, as Robert Shwartzman – taking over from Valtteri Bottas in FP1 – did an exploratory lap in his Sauber, along with team-mate Zhou Guanyu and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Charles Leclerc then set the opening timed lap of the session on wet tyres, a 1m26.530s, and Hulkenberg subsequently set a time 1.5 seconds slower after another pair of off-road moments as he struggled with corner turn-in.
The German got within two tenths on his next effort, while George Russell also got close to Leclerc’s new 1m26.111s benchmark, but the Ferrari driver remained on top as both McLaren drivers abandoned laps set to be quicker.
Verstappen then broke the wet-tyre deadlock to run with the intermediates, but spun at Turn 11 on his first timed run to ruin that particular effort. After regrouping, he set off for another run and went fastest with a 1m21.300s, almost five seconds faster than Leclerc’s lap on wets.
Russell raised the bar with his own intermediate opener to set a 1m20.444s, before being pipped by Lando Norris’ first lap on the green-walled tyre: a 1m20.392s lap.
The circuit was becoming visibly drier at this juncture as a threat of rain looming on the weather radar screens came to nought, setting the session up for a final flurry of laps on slick tyres.
Norris opened the final 10 minutes of soft-tyre runs with a 1m17.367s to go fastest, a time that withstood opening efforts from Russell and Oscar Piastri, but the Australian kept his foot in over the next lap to set a 1m15.971s.
Russell found 0.071s over Piastri to go fastest, although Norris found more time to set a 1m14.519s. Piastri improved further to a 1m14.293s, a time that was beaten once more by Russell’s 1m13.766s.
Norris posted a 1m12.818s to follow that up, which saw off threats from the two Mercedes drivers as Lewis Hamilton entered the fray, but was beaten by Verstappen’s 1m12.523s. Regardless, Norris reclaimed the fastest time, with Verstappen and Hamilton completing the top three.
Sainz lifted himself into fourth late on into the session, while Russell and Alex Albon completed the top six.
