Charles Leclerc made it a Ferrari one-two in second practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, after going four-thousandths of a second faster than teammate Carlos Sainz. The two drivers set their fastest times on the medium tyre but the Monacan edged out his teammate after the two traded fastest laps early on in the session.
Ferrari go into the weekend needing to start beating Max Verstappen, the Dutchman however appeared to struggle to unlock performance in the Red Bull and dropped down to eighth almost seven tenths off his championship rival.
There still could be more from Verstappen as his fastest time was on the hard tyre, and didn’t complete a qualifying simulation. Red Bull can’t be counted out as they have looked to have the better car and the Dutchman came through from eighth on Sunday to win at Spa.
Verstappen ninety-eight points clear of Leclerc in the championship with eight races to go, went straight from some laps establishing a set-up into his race-simulation run on a heavy fuel load. That left Verstappen in an unrepresentative eighth splitting the two Alpine’s going nearly two-tenths behind Fernando Alonso.
Mercedes meanwhile have made a better start to the weekend, Lewis Hamilton leading the Englishmen going four hundredths faster than Lando Norris. Norris put his McLaren fourth splitting the Silver Arrows after going just over two-tenths faster than George Russell.
There will be hopes of a repeat of Budapest where Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes all went into qualifying with a chance of pole, and Russell surprised by taking pole. Mercedes will hope to maybe to take advantage of this weekend and build on Russell’s strong results.
Lance Stroll was the surprise of the session putting his Aston Martin sixth the Canadian was nine-tenths behind the Mercedes and a full tenth ahead of Fernando Alonso. Alpine in practice not looking as if they are going to be a headache for Mercedes this weekend and Alonso four tenths behind Hamilton and Norris.
The French manufacturer also lost their dispute with McLaren over the future of reserve driver Oscar Piastri, after the Contract Recognition Board ruled that the South African’s contract with McLaren was his only valid deal for next year after Alpine had intended to field him in a race seat next year.
Verstappen was eighth three tenths almost ahead of the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon, with his former teammate Daniel Ricciardo rounding out the top ten a second off the outright pace. However, Ricciardo’s race runs were cut short during the red flag when an oil leak was detected.
Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was eleventh fastest he went eight hundredths faster than the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez. The Japanese driver causing the only red flag late in the session after he ran wide at Hans Ernst becoming beached in the gravel, which wrecked the teams long runs.
Mick Schumacher put his Haas thirteenth going seven hundredths faster than Sebastian Vettel. Guanyu Zhou put his Alfa Romeo fifteenth just over a hundredth behind the Aston Martin, Pierre Gasly was almost five hundredths further behind in the Alpha Tauri.
Alex Albon was seventeenth ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen, while his Williams teammate was just under a tenth and a half behind rounding the field.
