F1 News – Norris ends FP2 ahead of Verstappen

Dutch Grand Prix – Lando Norris pipped Max Verstappen to the top of the times in FP2 after crashes from the Australian drivers brought out an early Red Flag.

Zhou Guanyu led teammate Valtteri Bottas out on track as the second practice of the day got underway. The Chinese driver started the session off with a 1:14.388 on medium tyres. There was a close moment in the first few minutes when Max Verstappen almost went into the back of Nico Hulkenberg as he tried to navigate traffic. The incident will be investigated after the session.

(FP2) Second Practice Results – 2023 Dutch Grand Prix

The session was Red Flagged at the ten minute mark when Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo ended in the wall at the top of the T3 banking. Piastri lost the rear of his McLaren at the corner and Ricciardo was taking a high line along the banking, and by the time he saw the stranded car, the only thing he could do to avoid a collision was to hit the barrier himself. Ricciardo reported that he hurt his hand in the incident and was seen holding his wrist after getting out of his car.

At that point the two Red Bulls held the top of the timesheets, Verstappen with a 1:12.449, two tenths ahead of Sergio Perez, both on medium tyres. The two Mercedes were currently P3 and P4 while Piastri and Ricciardo had been sitting in P5 and P7, both on hards, while all cars had put a time on the board.

Practice got back underway with 37 minutes still to run and Carlos Sainz led a train of cars back out onto the track. With soft tyres fitted the timesheets were constantly changing with a new driver in P1 every time you blinked. 

At the halfway point it was Lando Norris on top with a bit of a gap to the rest. Verstappen was in P2, 0.238 seconds behind while Hamilton and Pierre Gasly were P3 and P4. Things were very close in the rest of the top ten with only 0.112 seconds between Lance Stroll in P5 and Alex Albon in P10. Verstappen did get much closer to Norris a few minutes later leaving just 0.023 seconds between the two.

The teams switched from qualifying laps to long runs then and so Norris remained at the top of the times with his 1:11.330 and Verstappen only a couple of hundredths behind. Albon ended the day in P3, the Williams driver setting a 1:11.599, while Hamilton took P4.

Yuki Tsunoda ended the session in P5 ahead of Gasly while Perez was P7 with a 1.11.807. Stroll, despite missing FP1 due to a power unit issue, was the faster of the Aston Martins in P8 while Alonso took P10. The two green cars were split by Bottas, who was 0.527 seconds off Norris’ time.