Practice 1 Report - Norris fastest in opening session

Lando Norris
© McLaren

Changing conditions didn’t stop Lando Norris and Max Verstappen from resuming their battle for supremacy in an unusual FP1 in Zandvoort. High winds and persistent light rain made the drivers very cautious early on, with Full Wets being used for the first 27 minutes of the session but few of them completed a lap time. Suddenly the sun was out, with local hero Max Verstappen the first to try Intermediate tyres and that became everyone’s tyre of choice for the next 20 minutes. Those high winds came in handy as the racing line dried up in record time, so for the last 13 minutes of the session everyone was able to run on slicks, nine teams sending their drivers out with Soft tyres, while Ferrari used one set of Medium compound tyres both on Leclerc and Sainz’s cars.

Traffic was, of course, a major issue on those last few minutes, as the combination of a very short lap with only one dry line made things tricky for everybody and it was Lando Norris who came out on top, beating his rival Max Verstappen by 0.201s. they were the only two drivers to run in the 1m12s bracket, but Lewis Hamilton would have comfortably joined them had he not found Stroll parked in the apex of Turn 13 as he completed his fastest lap of the session – and it was still good enough for P3, although almost 0.7s slower than Norris’ time. Russell, who also couldn’t get a clean lap, was 5th quickest, while Piastri was down in 7th after briefly leading the session. Of concern for Red Bull was Pérez’s poor performance, the Mexican being only 12th quickest, more than 2s slower than Norris, an early excursion into Turn 1’s run off area dampening his change while still running on Intermediate tyres.

With only the two McLaren drivers and Russell running with slicks for at least ten laps, it’s not possible to reach any conclusions after this first, changing, session, but it’s clear the two teams that have been at the front of the field are still extremely strong here in Zandvoort. Norris pipped Verstappen for the fastest time by a small margin, but Mercedes also seems to be in the battle and Ferrari is not out of it, so there’s a good chance of a four-way fight at the front. On medium compound tyres Carlos Sainz was fourth quickest, 0.752s behind Norris, giving reason for moderate optimism in the Scuderia’s camp.

Good timing and an almost traffic free lap helped Alex Albon to get up to P6, as the only midfielder to get among the top team drivers, with the Haas duo and Zhou Guanyu completing the top ten. Like Pérez, Leclerc was out of position, in P13, the Monegasque unable to avoid heavy traffic in the last sector, as was also Alonso (P15) and Ricciardo’s (P19) case.

Standing in for Bottas in this session, Robert Shwartzman was an impressive third fastest while everyone was running on Intermadiate tyres but his lack of experience showed when slicks were used, the rookie dropping to P16 but still doing a very commendable job on his first outing with Sauber. As for the Alpine drivers, none managed a traffic free lap on slicks, so much that Gasly’s best time was achieved still on Intermediates, making him slowest, by far, of all runners.

Yuki Tsunoda had a relatively quiet session the Japanese driver completing only 13 laps and being one of those who ran the least. With traffic also being a factor on his two flying laps on slicks, the VCARB driver was 14th quickest at the end of what was, for the team and himself, a pretty inconclusive session.