F1 Dutch GP live commentary and updates - FP1
Follow along for live updates of free practice from the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort
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We're going to head off - but we'll be back for FP2 a little bit later. Will it be dry? Pack a poncho if you're turning up late.
Verstappen's trying to pick the gravel out from the floor to save it from being bashed about when the tow truck comes.
Bortoleto is told about the incident, and can barely stifle a laugh when he responds "how did he go in the gravel?".
Verstappen beaches his car after his practice start! He's gone too deep after his getaway and he's managed to stick his car in the gravel at Turn 1.
He locked up, and shakes his head. "I'm stuck," he says.
FP1 at Zandvoort is over
A 1m10.278s for Norris to led the session, 0.292s clear of Piastri, 0.501s clear of Stroll - and with a big advantage over the other teams.
A strong opening salvo from McLaren.
The Ferraris and Hadjar have continued on the softs to bank some longer runs. This final part of FP1 might be useful for long-run analysis, especially if the rain comes for FP2...
Stroll sneaked in one last soft-tyre lap to get up to third, 0.501s off Norris.
Not a bad effort!
FP1: 10 minutes to go
"What is this guy doing?" Stroll asks over the radio as he gets stuck behind Yuki Tsunoda. Tsunoda's only 16th after struggling to unlock pace on the soft tyres.
The Ferraris didn't fare much better either, only 14th and 15th - Bortoleto got ahead of them on his second soft-tyre lap and sits P9.
That's a big ol' grey cloud hanging over the Dutch coast. Cue lots of native fans nervously checking out Buienradar to see what weather is coming (I'm reliably told every Dutch person has this app on their phone)...
That might be it for the soft-tyre times - at least, among the front runners; Norris and Piastri are back out on mediums. Russell and Hulkenberg follow suit to finish off their FP1 programmes.
McLaren's pace will be a bit of a wake-up call to the other teams, one suspects; only Alonso, Albon, and Verstappen are within a second of Norris' headline lap.
Albon improves by a tenth, 0.893s off Norris. Verstappen, meanwhile, goes fifth - 0.940s off the pace. Ominous - and not just the raincloud on the horizon.
Hamilton threads his way through two Alpines, as Gasly and Colapinto get a bit close for company.
Not a lot of changes towards the top end, as we await a lap from Verstappen on softs. Russell's up to fifth, but 1.1s off Norris' pace.
McLaren is looking alarmingly quick.
Piastri closes the gap to Norris, and he's now 0.292s off - albeit with a little snap on the exit of Turn 3.
Albon got within a second of Norris' benchmark, as Alonso jumps into third with a time 0.563s.
Norris gets a bit of coaching on his lines out of Turn 2, and is told that his team-mate is further over to the left.
Meanwhile, Sainz is third on softs, 1.2s off Norris, with Hulkenberg a further 0.35s behind. He's ahead of both Ferraris and team-mate Bortoleto - who is 0.006s off Hamilton's first soft-tyre time.
...but the second and third sectors, while personal bests, do not match Norris. He's 0.422s behind his team-mate after those laps.
Norris is over 2s faster than last year's FP1 best, albeit on tyres a step softer.
It's a 1m10.278s for Norris - 1.5s up on Piastri's earlier best. But Piastri's first sector on softs is now faster...
Hulkenberg goes up to 10th on the softs - and we have a few more takers for the red tyre too - both McLarens bolt the C4s on too.
Norris underlines the pace with a strong opening sector - 0.4s over Piastri's best on mediums.
Verstappen improves to a 1m11.986s, marginally extending his advantage over Russell.
Hamilton's on a lap, and he improves to the grand old heights of 11th...until Leclerc overlaps him. Used medium tyres, though.
Piastri then does a 1m11.794s to go to the top.
Russell wedges himself into second with that 1m12.130s, as Norris is up to third in the times. Sainz and Albon are in the top six early doors - Williams goes well here, but equally tends to go backwards after promising Friday sessions...
...and Sainz indeed has an off at Turn 11, skittering across the gravel.
FP1 resumes at Zandvoort
Antonelli's car is rescued, so let's get back to it. Plenty of takers for the circuit, given the unwelcome interruptions earlier on.
Russell's about to get us going with a lap.
Tsunoda's moment off-course: he marginally deep into Turn 11 and the rear snapped. He managed to extricate his car from the gravel - no harm, no foul.
Antonelli meanwhile, has a slow-motion off: the front didn't grip up into Turn 9 as he locked up, and he wasn't quite able to keep the car from going into the gravel.
Verstappen returns to the top with a 1m12.101s, while Tsunoda has an off...
...but Antonelli's beached his Mercedes. Red flag.
Alonso gets a 1m12.577s to go quickest, going well in the first sector particularly.
On that first sector: we heard Verstappen tell Bortoleto yesterday that there was no sense in taking a low-line apex to Turn 3, as it's too flat there. In F1's return here, it took a few different lines before drivers settled on staying high.
In the time it took to type that, Albon goes fastest with a 1m12.457s - and Hamilton had a spin out of Turn 2 and managed to right himself before that banked Turn 3.
Home hero Max Verstappen posts a 1m12.767s to go to the top of the pile. Presumably, that'll make the thousands of fans enrobed in orange happy - but the 'other' orange fans are sated when Piastri does a 1m12.678s to go fastest.
We all know that they're really here to support MP Motorsport in F2 - the true orange army.
We've got some early laps on the board, Piastri briefly at the top with a 1m14.198s on mediums.
Sainz then goes top with a 1m13.863s, before Hamilton throws a 1m13.306s into the reckoning. It's evolving quickly.
FOM's weather forecast reckons that we're on for some heavy rain this afternoon. Since it's dry at the moment, it's sensible for everyone to get on the road and try to complete their run plans swiftly - then perhaps get a headstart on FP2.
9kph winds too, a tailwind along the straight.
FP1 is away!
Hulkenberg hits the road first, followed by Norris, Piastri, Lawson, and Ocon.
VSC to start the session, presumably as a systems check, before we get full green flag running.
Zandvoort banking
Fun fact time! The final corner - the Arie Luyendyk Bocht - has 18-degree banking. Turn 3 has variable banking between 15-18 degrees on the high line of the circuit.
FP1 coming up
Sorry Liam, you can't hide from this one. His first FP1 here, weirdly enough.
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images
10 minutes (ish) until F1 kicks off again
It's been 26 days without an F1 session, but that's about to end very soon. Stick with us, as we bring you all the way through FP1 - whether you're watching at home, or on the move, we'll have the key bits for you.
...okay, make a cup of coffee, and then stick with us.
Who's that driver?
Choosing the shadows is one way to escape the home attention...
Photo by: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto / Getty Images
Alonso on Aston upgrade experiments: "It shouldn't have happened"
Interesting comments from Fernando Alonso yesterday on the Aston Martin struggles with updates over the past couple of years. Over 2023 and 2024, the team found very little improvement with its in-season 'upgrades'.
Alonso's comments might be a little 'Captain Hindsight' in flavour - but nonetheless say that the process shouldn't have happened like that.
"I don't think that it was a great thing to bring upgrades that didn't deliver what we were expecting. So there were some kind of mistakes in the process of designing something, producing something and believing that it will make the car faster.
"And when those parts are not making the car faster, you need to undo some of the steps and know where the mistake was made. And as I said, even if we learn from that, it should never have happened.
"This is Formula 1, not an academy to test things. Here you have to deliver."
FP1 for the Dutch GP - coming soon!
Morning, and welcome to our live coverage for the Dutch Grand Prix's opening sessions! It's been a long summer (actually, it doesn't really feel like it...) and, three-and-a-bit weeks later, we're back to it.
10 races to go, two championship protagonists separated by nine points - it's anyone's game!
McLaren MCL39, detail front wing
Photo by: Erik Junius
By: Autosport Staff
