Max Verstappen was fastest in the first practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, the Red Bull driver set a 11.852 on the soft tyre gong just over a quarter of a second faster than Fernando Alonso. Verstappen goes into the second half of the season as the driver to beat and the question is looking to be when does he wrap up his third championship.
As has been the case all season it didn’t take the Dutchman long to set the fastest lap, his first time was 15.4 that put him just five hundredths ahead of teammate Sergio Perez. Verstappen chipped away steadily to find over four seconds between his first lap and his fastest lap.
Verstappen is bidding for a record-equalling ninth consecutive win this weekend, which would match former Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel’s 2013 record. His otherwise smooth session ended with a trip across the gravel at Hans Ernst, as he completed his last lap before the post-FP1 practice start sequences on the grid.
Alonso was just under a tenth faster than Lewis Hamilton the Mercedes driver also setting his fastest time on the soft tyre. One of the subplots in the second half of the season is expected to be the battle between Aston Martin, Mercedes and Ferrari for second in the constructors.
Sergio Perez put his Red Bull fourth, the Mexican nearly a tenth behind Hamilton and nearly four and three-quarters of Verstappen. Perez is seen as the only real challenger to stop Verstappen sailing to the title, a late improvement by Hamilton pushed him to third. But the seven-time champion would have likely gone faster if he hadn’t been forced to abort a run.
After Hamilton had gone fastest in sector one, Nico Hulkenberg spun his Haas through Kumhobocht becoming beached in the gravel. That led to a red flag and the Mercedes driver aborting his run. Alex Albon continued Williams’s midseason upturn in form he was fifth just over a tenth behind Perez.
But Zandvoort being on the North Sea coast means that the circuit can often be dusty as sand often blows across the track from the dunes and beach.
Lando Norris spilt the two Williams, the McLaren driver just over a tenth behind Albon and a tenth and a half quicker than Logan Sargeant. Norris looking to build on McLaren’s strong recovery before the summer break, while teammate Oscar Piastri was eighth four hundredths behind Sargeant.
Alpine have appeared to slip back this season, and recent races have been filled by off-track turmoil and a few incidents between its drivers, Esteban Ocon was tenth nearly six-tenths behind the McLaren. But there was a small impeding moment with Verstappen with his teammate Pierre Gasly through the first sector.
Ferrari had a low-key session, Charles Leclerc sixteenth but the Monacan didn’t do a soft run while Robert Shwartzman, in for Carlos Sainz, was nineteenth. George Russell was eleventh, Mercedes probably using the session to test an upgraded floor as well as one of their nearest rivals Aston Martin.
Aston are hoping that the new floor design aimed at improving their performance after they slipped to the back of the four-team pack chasing Red Bull over the final part of the first half of the season. But Hamilton was just under a tenth behind Alonso at the front.
Gasly was twelfth, the Alpine driver nearly a tenth faster than Daniel Ricciardo. Kevin Magnussen was fourteenth over a tenth faster than Valtteri Bottas, Charles Leclerc and Guanyu Zhou.
Hulkenberg off midway through the session leaving him eighteenth as he was not able to do a soft run. Robert Shwartzman was nineteenth, the Russian racing under the Israeli flag replaced Carlos Sainz as part of the Scuderia’s plan to complete its 2023 rookie practice running requirements.
Lance Stroll rounded out the field with the Aston Martin, the Canadian not setting a time having to pit during the early stages when the team spotted a problem with his engine.
