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Practice report
Formula 1 Dutch GP

F1 Dutch GP: Russell quickest from Piastri in FP2

Russell quickest from Piastri as Verstappen has a low-key session

Mercedes' George Russell led McLaren driver Oscar Piastri in a crash-interrupted FP2 for the Dutch GP, with home hero Max Verstappen down in fifth.

Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris finished in third and fourth, while the other Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez, did not break into the top 10 and Ferrari suffered a reliability scare for Carlos Sainz.

In marked contrast to the wet and wild conditions that kicked off FP1, clear blue skies greeted the pack for the day's second one-hour session, where Alpine's Pierre Gasly led the pack out of the pits.

All the early running was done on the medium or hard tyres, with Verstappen's opening 1m12.131s on the mediums staying as the benchmark for the first quarter, during which many drivers locked up at Tarzan where a strong tailwind was making things tricky.

Shortly after he had pitted from a second run on a new set of mediums following a near dramatic off at Scheivlak, Hamilton forged ahead on a 1m11.833s.

The session was then suspended when Nico Hulkenberg spun off backwards at Tarzan – the rear wheels of his Haas locking suddenly as he braked and sending him to an accident that crumped the right-hand side of the German's car.

The wreckage was removed during a subsequent six-minute delay, after which Verstappen reappeared for an early qualifying simulation effort on the softs.

He duly took back the top time with a 1m10.986s despite a lap where the home hero's RB20 looked skittish throughout, but with Norris having also gone for a swift switch to the softs post-restart, the McLaren driver then nipped ahead on a 1m10.961s.

A few minutes later, Piastri demoted his team-mate to second with a 1m10.763s, before Russell took over with a 1m10.702s – despite running hard over the exit kerbs at the final corner.

Hamilton then slotted into third 0.111s down on the leading Mercedes, before Charles Leclerc completed Ferrari's sole soft-tyre run of the day on the far side of the session's halfway point.

This was only good enough for ninth behind Fernando Alonso, who ended up trailing Verstappen once the Dutchman had been shuffled back, Yuki Tsunoda and Kevin Magnussen.

Alex Albon rounded out the top 10 for Williams, followed by Lance Stroll and Perez in the second Aston Martin and Red Bull cars respectively.

After this, the field rapidly switched to long-run data gathering, with the weather forecast for the rest of the weekend mixed on Saturday and drier on Sunday – the wind in particular likely to be much less strong come race day – therefore placing a premium on understanding tyre degradation even more than is typically the case in an FP2 session.

Ferrari did not get any further lower fuel look on the softs other than Leclerc's mid-session effort, as Sainz had exited from proceedings after the early laps due to a suspected gearbox issue aboard his SF-24.

Two incidents of likely pitstop unsafe releases – involving Zhou Guanyu and Daniel Ricciardo, and Albon and Stroll – will be investigated post-session.

   
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Cla Driver # Chassis Engine Laps Time Interval km/h
1 United Kingdom G. Russell Mercedes 63 Mercedes Mercedes 30

1'10.702

  216.859
2 Australia O. Piastri McLaren 81 McLaren Mercedes 33

+0.061

1'10.763

0.061 216.672
3 United Kingdom L. Hamilton Mercedes 44 Mercedes Mercedes 30

+0.111

1'10.813

0.050 216.519
4 United Kingdom L. Norris McLaren 4 McLaren Mercedes 34

+0.259

1'10.961

0.148 216.067
5 Netherlands M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1 Red Bull Red Bull 33

+0.284

1'10.986

0.025 215.991
6 Spain F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing 14 Aston Martin Mercedes 30

+0.655

1'11.357

0.371 214.868
7 Japan Y. Tsunoda RB 22 RB Red Bull 31

+0.672

1'11.374

0.017 214.817
8 Denmark K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team 20 Haas Ferrari 33

+0.728

1'11.430

0.056 214.649
9 Monaco C. Leclerc Ferrari 16 Ferrari Ferrari 31

+0.741

1'11.443

0.013 214.610
10 Thailand A. Albon Williams 23 Williams Mercedes 33

+0.848

1'11.550

0.107 214.289
11 Canada L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing 18 Aston Martin Mercedes 31

+0.874

1'11.576

0.026 214.211
12 Mexico S. Perez Red Bull Racing 11 Red Bull Red Bull 29

+0.879

1'11.581

0.005 214.196
13 Australia D. Ricciardo RB 3 RB Red Bull 31

+0.928

1'11.630

0.049 214.049
14 France P. Gasly Alpine 10 Alpine Renault 33

+0.942

1'11.644

0.014 214.008
15 United States L. Sargeant Williams 2 Williams Mercedes 32

+1.116

1'11.818

0.174 213.489
16 China Z. Guanyu Sauber 24 Sauber Ferrari 33

+1.232

1'11.934

0.116 213.145
17 France E. Ocon Alpine 31 Alpine Renault 33

+1.359

1'12.061

0.127 212.769
18 Finland V. Bottas Sauber 77 Sauber Ferrari 32

+1.504

1'12.206

0.145 212.342
19 Spain C. Sainz Ferrari 55 Ferrari Ferrari 7

+2.406

1'13.108

0.902 209.722
20 Germany N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team 27 Haas Ferrari 10

+2.594

1'13.296

0.188 209.184

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