Lando Norris maintained his control over proceedings of the Dutch Grand Prix, fastest in FP2 which was marred by multiple Red Flag incidents.
Norris posted a 1:09.890 to go fastest of all, 0.087 clear of Fernando Alonso who was a surprise second for Aston Martin while championship leader, Oscar Piastri was third, just 0.002s behind the Spaniard.
And while Alonso's pace was a positive sign for Aston Martin, it was a bittersweet session for the team as Lance Stroll crashed hard early on at Turn 3 bringing out the first of three Red Flags. It was a big hit for the #18 AMR25 which means a long night for the mechanics rebuilding it in time for the final practice session on Saturday.
George Russell was fourth fastest in the Mercedes, 0.384s off the pace and ahead of reigning Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen who was fifth fastest, 0.204s behind the Briton. The Dutchman was sixth tenths off the overall pace in another worrying session for Red Bull.
After struggling massively earlier in the day, Lewis Hamilton ended FP2, sixth fastest, albeit eight and a half tenths off the pace and also performing another 360 spin similar to the one he did in FP1.
Yuki Tsunoda was seventh fastest in the other Red Bull, 0.905s of the pace and 0.039s ahead of Charles Leclerc who was eighth fastest in the end of the session.
Franco Colapinto was ninth fastest in the Alpine as Hulkenberg was tenth.
Isack Hadjar was a cause of one of the Red Flags as his car ground to a halt out on track while Alex Albon was responsible for the final stoppage after binning his Williams at Turn 1.
Rain was expected to hit the session, but it remained dry, which was good for the teams and drivers who managed to accumulate some laps despite the multiple interruptions.
Buildup towards FP2
No surprises in FP1 as McLaren were in a league of their own. Norris and Piastri were one two at the end of the session with the Briton having the upper hand so fa.
But the surprise came courtesy of Aston Martin as Stroll and Alonso were best of the rest as Verstappen was miles off the pace while Ferrari didn't feature in the top ten with either driver which begs the question whether the Italians were trying anything different.
Another surprise was Verstappen binning it at Turn 1 after his practice start at the end of the first practice session as he may have been testing the limits of the braking at that corner with an eye on the race start, but regardless, it was a bizarre incident as it was later revealed that the Red Bull ace kept the brakes biased towards the front...
While FP1 was a dry session, rain hit the track in Zandvoort ahead of FP2 but it stopped just before the session started but it is was expected to rain once again.
FP1 was tricky with the wind which meant several drivers had off moments and spins, Antonelli losing out the most as he couldn't rejoin after ending up in the gravel.
So how will FP2 pan out with rain although threatening the proceedings.
FP2 Session Highlights
The session started in windy and cloudy conditions as the track temperature was at 26 degrees Celsius while the air temperature was 19 degrees.
Drivers lined up in the pitlane racing to get out on track to make sure to get some dry running before the rains hit the track.
Dry running would be significant as qualifying is forecasted to be dry while the race might be in drying conditions.
As soon as the session started a weather update issued informed that rain was expected to hit the track 14 minutes into the session.
Six minutes into the session, Russell was warned that "significant rain" was expected in 12 minutes.
Replay then showed Alonso almost tangled up with Kimi Antonelli who was in his way. The Spaniard angrily gestured at the rookie and radioed: "Antonelli is blind."
Soon after that, Leclerc also had a moment with Tsunoda who decided to race the Monegasque. Then Albon was caught up by a slow Leclerc, messed up his braking and went through the gravel trap around the Turn 11/12 chicane.
The all came to a halt with the Red Flag coming out as Stroll crashed heavily destroying his Aston Martin after hitting the barriers at Turn 3. He radioed: "I'm ok."
The Canadian carried too much speed coming out of Turn 2 and his AMR25 simply couldn't handle it.
The session was restarted with a little over 40 minutes on the clock, but soon stopped again as Hadjar parked his VCARB on track reporting "no power".
The Virtual Safety Car was deployed since Hadjar parked next to an access point making it easy for marshals to retrieve his car.
The session was restarted for the second time with a little over 30 minutes remaining. It was still dry at that point.
Some drivers bolted on the Soft tyres for some qualifying runs and soon Hamilton spun, another 360, after understeering into Turn 9 went wide but kept it together but then his tyres touched the grass as he accelerated and he spun.
Then the Red flag came out again as Albon, on his first push lap on Softs messed up his braking into Turn 1, locked up and ended up beached in the gravel.
The Williams appeared to suffer from front wing damage, James Vowles commented from the pit wall: "The damage is not too bad, it's just more we have lost learning on the high fuel [for Albon].
"It's incredibly windy and we are seeing drivers getting caught out with gusts of wind," the Williams boss added.
The session was resumed with 15 minutes remaining.
With the Red flag still out, Piastri pitted but missed his box and went left right into the way of Russell who had to take avoiding action.
The incident was noted by the stewards and would be investigated after the session.
Piastri had a moment and ran wide at Turn 9 but kept it together as the session finally concluded with practice starts.
Dutch GP FP2 Classification
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