Norris fastest again in twice red-flagged FP2 at Zandvoort

McLaren’s Lando Norris made it a Friday clean sweep by topping Formula 1’s second practice session at the Dutch Grand Prix, while Lance Stroll suffered a heavy crash in the Aston Martin.

Norris bested Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and team-mate Oscar Piastri on Zandvoort’s 4.226km seaside circuit in a session derailed by two red flag periods and other minor incidents.

The session was halted early on for a sizable shunt by Stroll, who appeared to carry too much speed into the high Turn 3 banking and crashed into the outside wall, destroying both the front and rear right-side corners of his AMR25.

At the time of the stoppage Haas’ Oliver Bearman was found in a rare lead with a 1m11.113s on softs, ahead of Norris and Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto.

But as the session resumed at the 22-minute mark, the window to find further improvements quickly shut again due to a stricken Racing Bulls car of Isack Hadjar, who reported a loss of power. Hadjar was asked to stop his car on track, bringing out a Virtual Safety Car which was cleared with just half of the one-hour session remaining.

Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg shot to the top as the session went back to green, marginally eclipsing Bearman’s time before George Russell, Alonso and Norris all cycled through to the lead.

Lewis Hamilton suffered a spin as he lost the rear of his Ferrari on the exit of Turn 9, but then rallied to take sixth behind home favourite Max Verstappen.

Alex Albon then triggered a second red flag period as his first soft-tyre lap ended in the Turn 1 gravel trap, having outbraked himself and tapped the wall with his front wing.

The session was restarted once more with 16 minutes left, with the remaining drivers keen to salvage as much track time as possible. Further soft-tyre runs were few and far between, however, as many drivers tried to get some semblance of a long run going on either medium or hard rubber.

It meant Norris’ leading time remained untouched, with Alonso a surprise second after he and Stroll had also featured at the front in FP1. Piastri was third ahead of Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton, while Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda recovered from a difficult first practice session with seventh in FP2.

Charles Leclerc was eighth in the second Ferrari followed by Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, with Hulkenberg rounding out the top 10.

Third practice is on Saturday at 10:30am BST, with qualifying then at 3pm BST.

F1 Dutch GP results – FP2