F1 Dutch GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP2

Alonso is the latest driver to join the top three party, at the scene of his excellent runner-up finish for Aston last year. The Spaniard suggested it didn't really matter whether or not his team scores points over the second half of the season, so long as its development trajectory is reset on a more potent path, after a recent run of disappointing results.

Verstappen is the latest driver to have a concerning moment, though does well to keep his Red Bull on the asphalt at Turn 7. A mid-corner snap puts him wide and onto the kerb, but he doesn't go into the gravel at one of the fastest points of the circuit. 

Lots of improvements to note elsewhere now, as Norris elbows his way into third, with the hard-shod Albon and Tsunoda next up. within half a second of the outright pace. 

That excursion hasn't dented Russell's confidence too much however. He improves to third, just behind Hamilton, who is now Verstappen's nearest challenger. The three-time Dutch GP winner's early benchmark still stands for now though.

Stroll is looking strong early doors, and bolts into third for Aston Martin. Piastri meanwhile gets his first lap in post-helmet change and moves into 13th.

It doesn't take long here to get the laps in. Verstappen gives the home crowds some cheer by going fastest from Norris, a 1m12.131s from the Red Bull driver already quicker than the benchmark in FP1.

Tsunoda and Magnussen too elect to go immediately onto the hard tyres, with nobody deciding to stay home in the opening minutes of the session. Everybody is out to make up for lost time earlier in the horrible weather seen in FP1.

Gasly and Albon head out on hard tyres, but everybody else to venture onto the circuit does so on the yellow sidewall medium rubber.

Of course, while preparation for qualifying will be an important consideration, so too will understanding how the cars perform on a longer run. Managing tyre degradation is always crucial for this generation of ground effect cars, and small changes to ride-height and suspension set-up can have an enormous impact on not only finding that sweet spot but keeping the cars in that window for longer. 

We're just a few minutes away now from the start of the session. Remember, in FP1 the pace-setting times on a drying track using soft tyres were in the mid-to-low 1m12s bracket. With a bit more rubber down this afternoon, how much further will teams improve?

In case you missed it earlier, Alpine announced that Jack Doohan will partner Pierre Gasly at its F1 team next year, following the departure of Esteban Ocon to Haas. For those of you unfamiliar with the Australian's career trajectory, Jake Boxall-Legge takes a look at his rise to reaching the F1 grid.

Under bright sunshine, there's a party atmosphere on this famous seaside circuit's dunes - it couldn't be much more of a contrast to earlier on when the fans were being battered by vicious rain.

The timing screens inform us that the risk of rain for the upcoming session, which begins in a little under 15 minutes, is precisely zero. Teams will welcome the opportunity to get properly acclimatised to this short circuit, where pole position laptimes last year were just a shade over 70 seconds. They could potentially come down this year too.

As always, there's only so much that we can deduce from FP1 - all the more so today given how precious few laps teams managed to get on the slicks. Ferrari was the only one to buck the trend and bolt on a set of mediums for the closing stages, as everyone else went onto softs. That factor considered, Carlos Sainz did pretty well to end up with the fourth-fastest time.

Things were a bit wet and wild earlier, but the track dried remarkably quickly during the hour-long FP1 session to the point that everybody was able to run on slicks in the closing stages. Lando Norris ended up with the fastest time for McLaren, beating Red Bull's home hero Max Verstappen. You can find the full report from that session here. 

Good afternoon everybody, and welcome to Autosport's live text coverage of second practice for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.