Lando Norris set the fastest time during opening practice for Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix as the championship returned from its summer hiatus at Zandvoort.
In largely overcast conditions at the coastal resort Norris, who won last year’s event, posted a time of 1:10.278s to finish 0.292s clear of McLaren team-mate and title leader Oscar Piastri.
Lance Stroll was third-best for Aston Martin though he set his Soft tyre lap relatively later compared to the other front-runners.
Aston Martin’s encouraging start was nonetheless reinforced by Fernando Alonso taking fourth, ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon and reigning World Champion Max Verstappen, who had an atypical conclusion to his session when he went off at Turn 1.
Verstappen had completed a practice start on the grid but locked his right-front tyre heavily and bounced across the gravel, coming to a halt just shy of the barriers.
Mercedes’ George Russell was seventh, ahead of Williams’ Carlos Sainz, with Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly rounding out the top 10.
Ferrari had a low-key session with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton only 14th and 15th respectively.
After the Soft tyre runs, which left the pair 1.6s off the pace but split only by 0.009s, Leclerc radioed to say “my opinion is that we should focus on what we are doing now, we are miles off, miles off.”
Hamilton also had an early spin through Turn 2 and completed a full 360 before safely continuing on his way.
Yuki Tsunoda had a trip through the gravel during the initial moments and continued to lag behind team-mate Verstappen, finishing the session down in 16th place.
The sole interruption of the session came after only 10 minutes, when Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli erred into Turn 9 and skated into the gravel trap at low speed.
Antonelli’s stricken car needed recovering and the session was suspended as a consequence, leaving the youngster with just five full laps under his belt.
Team-mate Russell also had an off-track excursion during the session, having locked up and run wide through Turn 1 in the closing moments, but he was able to keep the car going.
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