McLaren driver Lando Norris put in an impressive effort to go fastest in second practice for the Dutch Grand Prix at Circuit Zandvoort by 0.023s from Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Williams' Alex Albon was a surprise third on the timing screens ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, with eight constructors in the top ten and 16 drivers all within eight tenths of a second of the top time.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri triggered an early red flag by losing the back end of his car in turn 3, which also caught out AlphaTauri's Daniel Ricciardo who ended up parked next to him in the barrier.
It was a somewhat overcast afternoon in Zandvoort for second practice, warm and humid but crucially dry in the dunes bordering the North Sea coast. The colour of the day was overwhelmingly orange for local hero Max Verstappen, who had topped the earlier session from Fernando Alonso whose Aston Martin team mate Lance Stroll had missed out on track time with a power unit issue. FP1 had been punctuated by a red flag for Nico Hulkenberg running off into the gravel and light contact with the barrier, but Haas were able to get the VF-23 back in one piece in time for the lights to go green at the start of FP2.
First out on track were Alfa Romeo pair Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, along with Williams duo Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant. Stroll understandably wanted to make an early start to make up for his lack of running time in FP1, while Carlos Sainz was also keen to get to work having sat out the earlier session in favour of Ferrari junior Robert Shwartzman.
Bottas set the early pace with a time of 1:13.630s on hard tyres, with Lewis Hamilton only three thousandths quicker in the Mercedes on a set of mediums. Pierre Gasly and then George Russell pushed the pace on, before Sergio Perez went six tenths quicker planting Red Bull's colours on the top of the hill with a time of 1:12.750s. However Verstappen was caught out by backed-up traffic as he came out of the chicane into turn 13, and opted to abort his first flying lap.
Hamilton took the opportunity to go top with a new run of 1:12.713s, and Perez immediately snatched it back by 0.069s. McLaren's Oscar Piastri and AlphaTauri's Daniel Ricciardo were also up to speed and into the top five on the hard compound on their initial runs. However they were all put in the place by the return of head boy Verstappen, going top with a new benchmark of 1:12.449s which was two tenths quicker than his team mate.
Seconds later there came the second red flag of the day with Piastri losing the back end of the MCL60 carrying too much speed coming into the inclined turn 3 and making contact with the barrier, damaging the front and rear wings. This startled Ricciardo who had been running close behind, and the Aussie's avoiding action resulted in the nose of the AT04 also finding the barrier. After the cars were craned away, the barriers reset and debris swept up by the marshals, the session resumed with 36 minutes still on the clock and Sainz at the head of queue in pit lane.
Perez was out on softs and set a new top time of 1:11.946s, but Sargeant then nipped ahead before Stroll took over in turn with a time of 1:11.835s. Hamilton then took charge by two tenths, but Lando Norris was even quicker and shaved a further three tenths off the target time to top the timesheets on 1:11.330s. That proved too rich even for Verstappen who had to settle for slotting into second after a lap characterised by major oversteer through the bumpy turn 3, the Dutch driver sounding slightly lost for suggestions as to where to make the required improvements.
Verstappen did manage to narrow the gap to Norris with his next run but remained second by 0.023s. Albon had moved into the top three and there had been good runs for AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine's Gasly, but Alonso was now down in tenth while Mercedes' Russell was clearly struggling and only 13th ahead of Sainz who had skimmed through the gravel, the day not proving as good as hoped for by Ferrari. Charles Leclerc was slowest of all with 25 minutes remaining, but improving to 11th soon after.
Once the soft tyres had reached the end of their useful life, teams switched back to the hard or medium tyres for the rest of the session. There was a further late off-track excursion into the gravel for Sainz, which while not exactly ideal for the underfloor of the SF-23 did not do any lasting damage.
At the chequered flag, Norris was crowned king of the sandcastles ahead of Verstappen, Albon, Hamilton, Tsunoda and Gasly. Perez, Stroll and Bottas remained in the top ten ahead of Alonso, leaving Leclerc just missing out in 11th along with Sargeant, Esteban Ocon, Russell, Zhou and Sainz. Slowest of all those still running were the two Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, while Piastri and Ricciardo were inevitably at the bottom of the timings as a consequence of their early exits.
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