Lando Norris topped a wet and windy first practice session for the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix, ahead of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
The rain and the strong wind meant that running was pointless, and it wasn't until the final ten minutes of the session that the track was dry enough for slick tyres to be used.
That means that not much can be taken from the times set in FP1 other than that Red Bull with Verstappen, McLaren and Mercedes were the usual front runners.
Norris went fastest and seemed in good form once he had the slick tyres on his car, fast out of the box, while Verstappen had to work harder to put a lap together ultimately going second fastest with Hamilton third fastest.
As for the rest of the weekend, the conditions are expected to be dry while the wind is expected to remain.
Buildup towards FP1
After a well deserved break for all those involved in and around Formula 1, action resumed in the final part of the 2024 season at Verstappen's home race, the Dutch Grand Prix.
F1 lands in Zandvoort for the first of the nine final races, and the stakes couldn't be any higher with Red Bull and Verstappen racing while looking over their shoulders for the attacking McLaren and Mercedes, while Ferrari occasionally shows up to the party.
Verstappen will be gunning for pole and win #4 at his home race, thus hoping to keep a clean record of winning at Zandvoort ever since the race returned to the calendar back in 2021, but this year the job will not be an easy one.
Norris and Oscar Piastri in the McLaren will be hell bent on ruining Verstappen's home coming, while Hamilton and George Russell will also be fancying their chances in the rejuvenated Mercedes.
Many things changed after the summer break, Carlos Sainz became a Williams driver while Red Bull kept the faith in Sergio Perez with Alpine getting a new boss in the form of Oliver Oakes the French team also announcing Jack Doohan as Pierre Gasly's teammate for 2025 just hours before FP1.
Back to racing, Pirelli brought their hardest tyres to Zandvoort: C1 (Hard), C2 (Medium), and C3 (Soft).
As for upgrades, six teams have them this weekend. Red Bull have a new engine cover with circuit specific cooling requirements as well as a revised Halo and side mirrors.
McLaren on the other hand have quite an upgrade with new brake scoops up front, a revised front suspension, as well as a revised floor edge.
The guys from Woking also brought a modified rear suspension, a new higher downforce rear and beam wings.
Alpine have a revised front suspension leg as well as new rear brake duct furniture, while VCARB have new geometry for their car's rear brake duct and winglets.
Haas have a new front wing and nose, while the front suspension feature a new upper wishbone and a changed vertical deflector.
Williams, probably aiming at impressing Sainz, have a big upgrade as well with new: Floor body, diffuser, sidepod inlets, coke/engine cover, and central air intake.
As for drivers, Robert Schwartzman replaces Valtteri Bottas in the Sauber for FP1.
FP1 Session Highlights
Summer break over and so is the summer? The session started in rainy and windy conditions with track temperatures 21 degrees Celsius as air temperature was 20 degrees.
The teams did not race out on track, as Haas and Alpine sent out Gasly and Kevin Magnussen for some exploration laps. Nico Hulkenberg soon followed as well and
Gasly reported that it was "pretty wild" with the wind crazy, while Hulkenberg ended up in the gravel at Turn 10, but nothing broke on his car.
Soon Sainz and Zhou Guanyu join the action, and like other drivers ahead of them, they were on the full wet blue-walled Pirellis.
Almost 15 minutes into the session only Charles Leclerc, Logan Sargeant, and Alex Albon were out on the track, full wets being the tyres of their choice.
Other than that, nothing much was happening, as Magnussen was out of his car and explaining to some Haas guests in the garage how his steering wheel worked.
Williams soon called their drivers in and Leclerc had the track all for himself and went on throwing spray all over the place.
Twenty minutes into the session, Hulkenberg once again ended up in the gravel, this time at Turn 9, and follows that up by going deep at Turn 1.
After that the first of the Mercedes cars emerged on track, Russell in particular and was soon followed by Norris in the McLaren.
Halfway into the session only Leclerc, Hulkenberg and Russell were the drivers setting lap times, but soon more driver got out on track, the two Aston Martins, Perez in the Red Bull.
But the soon the driver of the weekend, Verstappen made his way out on track but on Intermediate tyres. He soon brought out the first Yellow flag of the weekend, spinning at Turn 11. He previously has a wobble Turn 1.
Verstappen goes on to set the fastest lap after his moment.
Hamilton head out on track with less the 25 minutes on the clock while Russell rejoined after his earlier lap. Hamilton went second fastest then Russell went fastest.
The track continued improving as the first rays of sunlight appeared and soon Norris went fastest of all, but Gasly soon had an off-track moment at Turn 1, something Perez copied moments later.
After some brief action, and with less than 15 minutes remaining, all 20 cars were back in their respective garages.
However, McLaren soon sent out Norris and Piastri on Soft tyres. Russell follows suit in the Mercedes as a dry line emerged out on track.
Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin as well as Lance Stroll also joined the action on slicks, with Verstappen, Sainz, Leclerc and others soon followed.
The final minutes of the session saw a flurry of laps posted with times dropping as the track dried up and Norris ended up on top.
Practice starts concluded the session.
How they finished
Norris posted a lap time of 1:12.322 to go fastest, 0.201s faster than Verstappen in second and 0.684s faster than Hamilton in third.
Sainz was fourth fastest in the Ferrari, 0.752s off the pace and ahead of Russell who was fifth fastest in the second Mercedes.
With a lap time of 1:13.159, Albon was sixth fastest for Williams and 0.071s ahead of Piastri in seventh with Hulkenberg 0.333s further back in eighth.
Magnussen and Zhou were ninth and tenth respectively.
Dutch GP FP1 Classification
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