Verstappen tops FP1 in Dutch GP as Hulkenberg crashes out

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen got his home race off on the right foot as the Dutchman went fastest in FP1 as Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg found the barrier.

How first practice unfolded…

In the first on-track action, after the summer break, the pit lane was full of action as a number of drivers peeled into the pit lane and waited for the pit exit light to turn green. Of the first drivers out on track, only the Aston Martin pairing of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll and William’s Alexander Albon remained in their respective garages.

The circuit is situated beside the North Sea coastline, west of Haarlem, as such the first runs were set on cleaning up the track with installation runs, shakedowns and the first timed laps.

It was back to business as usual, of the first lap times, as the Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Sergio Perez went to the top of the timing boards. However, it wasn’t long before the lap times began to tumble.

As the session crept towards the halfway mark, Verstappen topped the timing board with a 1:13.191 ahead of the Mercedes duo of Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. At the other end of the board, Stroll was yet to set a lap time on the board with 35 minutes left to go and the Canadian was ordered back into the pitlane with a suspected problem.

Unfortunately, Aston Martin’s Canadian driver failed to put in a lap time on the board and ended the first day back down in 20th as the team investigated the issue.

At the halfway mark, after all of the drivers completed their fastest laps on the hard or medium compounds, Williams’ Logan Sargeant was the first driver to go out on the soft compound tyres and set purple sector times as he secured the new fastest lap: 1:12.814.

Sargeant quickly set the trend a handful of drivers followed suit and ventured out on the red-walled tyres while the rest remained on their used compounds. But, it wasn’t long before they opted for the faster tyre. Perez, on softs, soon went to the top of the timing boards with a 1:12.439 at the halfway mark before he improved his time by a tenth.

The red flag was quickly brought out by Nico Hulkenberg, Haas, with 17 minutes to go as the German driver spun out across the gravel trap on the penultimate corner and found himself in the barrier.

At the end of the session, Verstappen quickly went to the top of the session as free practice got back underway and finished as the fastest driver ahead of Alonso and Russell. Perez led the best of the rest ahead of Albon, Lando Norris (McLaren), Sargeant, Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) to round out the top 10 respectively.

Russell led the bottom 10 drivers in 11th ahead of Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Daniel Ricciardo (Alpha Tauri), Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas who occupied 12th, 13, 14th and 15th subsequently. Bottas was the first driver who had not completed his fastest lap time on the soft tyres with his fastest time secured on the mediums.

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Gunayu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), Hulkenberg, Robert Shwartzman (Ferrari) and Stroll respectively completed the field from P16 to P20. As per the ruling where all 10 teams are forced to use a young driver for two Free Practice 1 sessions, across the season, Shwartzman was put in to replace Carlos Sainz this weekend. The Spaniard will be back for Free Practice 2.

That’s all for the article: Verstappen tops FP1 in first session back at Dutch GP!

Read more Formula 1 here:

• Daniel Ricciardo utilised break to build fitness ahead of second half of F1 season
• Robert Shwartzman takes Sainz seat in FP1 of Dutch GP
• Three predictions for the rest of the F1 2023 season
• Verstappen taught how to drift by ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett amid F1 summer break
• Vesti set to drive Mercedes W14 at Mexican GP
• Verstappen clinches 8th consecutive win at Belgian GP after sixth-place start

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.