The Friday in F1 Dutch GP saw mixed weather conditions but still plenty of running with McLaren and Mercedes showing good outright pace.
The weather played some role on Friday in F1 Dutch GP but the teams got enough dry running in the end to prepare for Sunday’s race. It is expected to rain on Saturday which will not help them in collecting as much data as they did in FP2.
It was McLaren and Mercedes with the pace. Lando Norris was fastest in FP1, while George Russell took the mantle in FP2. Their teammates Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton backed them up after showing good pace themselves.
In fact, Norris feels Mercedes has better pace than McLaren. Hamilton felt better too especially when compared to where they were last year at Zandvoort. Even the Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll showed good pace.
But both Red Bull and Ferrari were not too happy with their show. Max Verstappen conceded to be slow in both short and long runs, while Sergio Perez focused on experiments. Charles Leclerc accepted his fate, while Carlos Sainz lost time due to gearbox issue.
Norris: “Pretty good. Nice to be back in the car. I think Zandvoort’s a tough one to come back to straightaway just because it’s quick and it’s up and down, it’s twisty, a bit of everything. So yeah, nice, first day back in the car. A bit of progress needs to be made before tomorrow. We are probably not [the strongest], Mercedes are quicker. It’s close. I don’t think there is a quickest, it just depends on different factors. But we’ve been in good form since Miami, but we’ve not really brought any updates since Miami. This weekend’s our first time trying to make a bit more progress with the car. [I’m] optimistic but I have no idea if it’s working or not, or how it’s performing at the minute, but today was a reasonable day and we’re there or thereabouts. A little bit more to find overnight, hopefully, and we can challenge the Mercedes.”
Hamilton: “It wasn’t a bad start to the weekend. It’s a big, big difference compared to last year so the car’s definitely feeling more alive and we’re right up there at the front. We understand the car so much better now, so to start off on the right foot from the get-go and just making small tweaks from there is definitely very helpful. It makes our job more enjoyable. I think there’s still performance left, but I’ve just got to work a little bit on the set-up. I don’t know if I looked particularly that quick, but again I think the set-up that I had for qualifying or for a single lap was hindering the long run. I don’t know whether or not [we could be in the mix] for the win but we’re definitely at least in the top five.”
Verstappen: “Of course, in FP1 I didn’t really get a lot of running in. I guess in FP2 you could see a little bit more where you are. We’re a bit too slow on the short run, a bit too slow on the long run, so a bit of work to do. At the moment, [there’s] no clear answer of how to improve that specifically, but we’ll look into things. Just a bit too slow, as simple as that. It’s where we’ve been the last few races, so it’s not really a surprise. We’ll try to just find a little bit more performance for Sunday.”
Sainz: “Basically no track running today. Only three laps in FP1 because of the weather, for everyone, but then in FP2, [when] everyone was looking to obviously catch up on what we lost in FP1, we had a gearbox issue. We go into Saturday almost like a bit of a Sprint weekend, because we will only have one practice session to get up to speed and have a good weekend. I’m going to have to hit the ground running tomorrow in FP3, make sure that I’m immediately on the pace, and hopefully we can have still a good performance.”
Alonso: “It’s good to be back and it feels so fast after four weeks without driving a Formula One car. It’s a fun track and the conditions were very difficult today, with very high winds and some rain around in FP1. Through the corners you could really feel the wind but it was the same for everyone. Tomorrow will be a little more unpredictable with the weather, so let’s see what we can do.”
While the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari faltered a bit, it gave opportunity to others to make it inside the Top 10. There were eight different teams in the Top 10 in FP2 with the likes of Visa Cash App RB, Williams and Haas making it inside as well.
It was Yuki Tsunoda, Alexander Albon and Kevin Magnussen in a better position, but their teammates Daniel Ricciardo, Logan Sargeant and Nico Hulkenberg did not fare well. In fact, the German had three spins in FP1, while he crashed out in FP2.
While the three teams did better with one car, the Stake F1 Team and Alpine pair were not too happy with their Friday pace and felt a bit down. The former also ran Robert Shwartzman to fulfil the FP1 requirements as set by the FIA.
Tsunoda: “We definitely had a good start to the second half of the season. Especially in FP2, we ended up top 10. The car felt pretty solid, we just need a bit of fine tuning for qualifying tomorrow, but we’re not too far away. Considering we’re dealing with these kind of winds, the car seems consistent and quite balanced, so I felt confident straight away from FP1. With the track being so up and down with massive banking, I enjoyed it. The team is positive, we just have to do as well tomorrow.”
Albon: “Both sessions were okay today, however FP1 felt a little stronger while we’ve been learning about our new aero package and update. Everything seems to be pretty in line with where we expected it to be, and the car doesn’t feel drastically different but that’s also what we expected. We’re chipping away at it, but I think we need a bit more pace and there are definitely some areas we know need fixing. Coming back from summer break, the bigger issue is feeling a bit rusty and compiled with the wind, rain and a tight and sandy track, it’s just about trying to get back into the groove.”
Gasly: “It’s been a pretty challenging first Friday back after the summer break here in Zandvoort. The conditions were certainly tricky with the high winds and rain but the track did dry quite quickly. I missed out on some running in Free Practice 1 and the feeling in the car in Free Practice 2 was not too great, so I’m sure we will have a good look through everything tonight and see what we can improve. It looks like the conditions will continue to be tough for the rest of the weekend. That’s not a bad thing as I do quite like mixed conditions.”
Bottas: “Coming back to the car after a few weeks off and finding these blustery conditions was definitely tricky! It was not easy to find the right balance today and, with the conditions changing so quickly, it was difficult to find the rhythm you needed to get into the flow, especially on such a track. However, we have one more practice session tomorrow on top of the work we are going to do tonight: our job will be to find a bit more stability, and that will translate into more performance. We know we are still lacking something in terms of pace to be in the top ten, but tomorrow the conditions will be difficult again and, together with some luck, that could help us. For now, we need to focus on doing our part to get a better overall balance.”
Hulkenberg: “It was a very unexpected, very sudden rear lock event that I didn’t foresee and didn’t expect in the way that it happened. It was definitely a wind gust that caught me out; I had a little more brake pressure than before but I didn’t brake later. It was on the edge, and two or three more circumstances tipped it over the edge and made it look quite dramatic. Luckily, it wasn’t a big impact and there was next to no damage, but obviously the lost time is the prize that we pay. The midfield – or second pack where we are – looked close together and compact, so we’re definitely in the mix but I’ve made it harder for myself with less preparation time.”
Shwartzman: “First of all, I would like to thank Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber and Ferrari for this opportunity. The team was super welcoming to me right away, and I also got to see some familiar faces as well, people I worked with at Ferrari before. It had been nearly a year since I last drove a Formula One car, back in Abu Dhabi, and once I got here, I knew I had to adapt quickly. On top of it, Zandvoort is possibly one of the most challenging racetracks, although a very enjoyable one to drive, and with today’s mixed conditions I needed to be on it straight away.
“Overall, I can say I am happy with today’s performance: it’s been a good learning session despite the rain and strong winds, and the car felt good. I got stuck in some traffic towards the end, which made me lose some time and made it difficult to put in a better laptime – I think I could have improved even further on the slicks had we had one extra lap. Still, it’s been a good day, and I am happy with how things have gone.”
Here’s how FP1 in F1 Dutch GP panned out
Here’s how FP2 in F1 Dutch GP panned out
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