Norris sets the fastest in rain-affected Dutch GP FP1

McLaren’s Lando Norris set the pace in the first practice session, at Zandvoort, as Formula 1 returns to action at the Dutch Grand Prix. 

Feature image credit: Red Bull Content Pool

It was a wet resumption to the F1 season as the rain fell before the first practice of the Dutch Grand Prix, at the Zandvoort Circuit, hindering any possibility of getting the full picture of how the upgrades correlate to the data from the simulator.

Whilst Pierre Gasly was the first driver to venture out onto the circuit with full wet tyres on display, Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg gave the sport its first on-track moment on its return. 

The German was testing the conditions, early on, and locked up into turn 10, veering off into the gravel. Hulkenberg was able to skip across the gravel and return to the circuit without issue. 

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen put on a show for his home crowd on the entry of turn 11 as the triple world champions spun out, as the session approached halfway. As a result of facing the wrong way, the Dutchman corrected his direction with a pirouette before continuing. 

Shortly after, Gasly had his own moment into turn one as he understeered wide but he was soon scooped up and dragged onto the gravel trap as his left tyres touched the damp grass verge.

In the dying session, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were the first drivers to test the conditions on the soft compound tyres, followed by the rest of the field bar the two Ferraris. 

This came after some time when the inters hoovered up the water from the damp Dutch circuit. 

How the first practice finished

Norris found himself at the top of the timing boards in the first session back to ignite the second half of the F1 season, with a lap time of 1m 12.322s, followed by Verstappen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who completed the session in second and third. 

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was best of the rest in fourth, ahead of Hamilton’s teammate George Russell in fifth. 

Alexander Albon, Williams, led the bottom five inside the top 10 with Oscar Piastri just under a tenth of second behind in seventh. The Haas duo of Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, and Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu completed the top 10 respectively. 

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was the fastest driver in the bottom 10, in 11th, with his teammate Fernando Alonso 15th. Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Yuki Tsunoda (RB) completed the Aston Martin sandwich in 12th, 13th and 14th respectively. 

Having taken over Valtteri Bottas’ seat for the session, Robert Schwartzman completed FP1 in 16th and stood as the only FP1 rookie of the session.

Williams’ Logan Sargeant finished nearly a second behind the Kick Sauber rookie with the Alpine duo of Esteban Ocon and Gasly occupying 18th and 20th. RB’s Daniel Ricciardo squeezed in between the Alpine teammates in 19th.

Read more Formula 1 here:

• Jack Doohan to drive for Alpine in 2025
• Weather Report for the F1 2024 Dutch GP
• Lewis Hamilton race engineer set to stay at Mercedes for 2025
• VCARB expecting a fight for points in Dutch GP
• McLaren have ‘renewed energy’ for the second half of F1 season
• Oscar Piastri ‘healed’ ahead of Dutch GP

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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.