Norris Tops Second Practice, Piastri and Ricciardo Crash Out

During the second practice session for the Dutch Grand Prix on Friday, Lando Norris narrowly topped the session over Max Verstappen.

The first action of the session came in the first ten minutes at the Zandvoort circuit, Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri lost control of his McLaren as he exited Turn Two, resulting in him sliding into the barriers on the outer edge of the banked Turn Three. Shortly after Piastri’s incident, Daniel Ricciardo approached the same section at full speed, having not seen the yellow flags that came out late. With Piastri’s car obstructing the racing line, Ricciardo couldn’t avoid crashing into the wall himself.

Both drivers were unable to return to the pits, effectively ending their practice sessions. Concerns grew regarding Ricciardo’s health for this race weekend as replays revealed his hands being thrown around within the cockpit due to him still gripping the steering wheel upon impact. Ricciardo was confirmed to have been taken to hospital for a routine check.

After the track was cleared, drivers switched to the softer compound tyres, resulting in some quicker lap times. Norris impressed by setting an impressive lap time of 1:11.330s, securing the fastest lap despite two attempts by the local favourite, Verstappen.

Verstappen ended up 0.023s behind Norris, managing to recover from a close call after some understeer as he exited Turn Three during his first attempt on the soft tyres.

Alex Albon achieved a remarkable third place for Williams Racing, trailing a couple of tenths behind, while Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top six positions, which means six different teams were in the top six at the end of the session.

Seventh place went to Sergio Pérez, who was almost half a second slower than his teammate Verstappen on an important weekend for his future. Lance Stroll secured eighth place for Aston Martin Armaco Cognizant F1 Team, in his first real running following a power unit in Free Practice One.

Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso completed the top ten. While, both Scuderia Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr, had a disappointing performance, finishing in eleventh and sixteenth respectively after a couple of excursions through the gravel for Sainz.

Williams’ rookie, Logan Sargeant, claimed twelfth position, narrowly ahead of Esteban Ocon, George Russell, and Zhou Guanyu. The Haas F1 Team duo of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg secured seventeenth and eighteenth places respectively.

Piastri and Ricciardo concluded the session without setting competitive lap times due to their early crashes, which leaves both McLaren F1 Team and Scuderia AlphaTauri with significant repair work to undertake overnight before the final practice session on Saturday morning.