George Russell was fastest at the end of the second practice session for the 2024 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastri second fastest and Lewis Hamilton third.
While Russell was fastest, the pecking order is far from being a done deal, as Piastri was negligibly slower in second while Hamilton was tenth off the pace.
Lando Norris and Max Verstappen were fourth and fifth, as the top five were all within less than three tenths, and keeping in mind that Russell did his qualifying simulation after his rivals which means that the track was grippier, qualifying should end up being a thrilling session, when Red Bull supposedly turn the wick up, something they do not do on Friday.
The long runs also showed that it was close with McLaren in Norris' hands having a slight advantage over Verstappen.
Ferrari on the other hand did not have a good session with Carlos Sainz's FP2 cut short due to a gearbox problem while Charles Leclerc was only ninth fastest.
While the session was dry, the wind was quite strong, and made matters tricky for drivers especially while tackling Turn 1, several drivers going off there while Nico Hulkenberg was the only one who crashed out.
Buildup towards FP2
The first practice session for the 2024 Dutch GP did not offer much insight due to the rainy and windy conditions, that is, other than that it was Red Bull, McLaren, and Mercedes at the top, while Ferrari stayed under the radar.
The fastest times in FP1 were about who out in a lap towards the end when the track conditions were at their best, which is always the case when the session starts as wet and then shifts into dry conditions.
McLaren have an decent upgrade this weekend, and maybe that was the reason why Norris seemed to extract lap time out of his MCL38 easily while Verstappen appeared to be working harder for that, but can the latter deliver some of his magic around the track he has mastered since 2021? Or will the former interrupt the Dutchman's streak at Zandvoort?
Let's see if FP2 offers any insights.
FP2 Session Highlights
The sun was out at the start of FP2 and the rain went away, but the strong wind (19km/h) remained as track temperature went up to 32 degrees Celsius while air temperature was at 20 degrees.
That meant the teams did not waste any time to get running and sent their drivers out to wait for the green light at the end of the pitlane.
Pierre Gasly led the pack out on track as all the cars that joined the action had a mix of Hard and Medium Pirellis bolted on (Gasly and Alex Albon were on Hards, Tsunoda and Magnussen too).
Soon Piastri radioed that he needed to box and change his helmet as he reported something was wrong with his visor.
"Something is completely wrong with this visor, I basically can't see," he said and went back to the pits, replaced the helmet and was back on his way.
Less than ten minutes into the session, Russell was the first driver to have an off-track moment, as he locked up hard into Turn 9 and ended up in the gravel.
"Little bit strange," Russell told his team just after the incident.
Sergio Perez soon after locked up going into Turn 1 and went into the gravel. He reported that he was struggling to stop the car in Turn 1.
Verstappen then reported that "he lost the rear" and that he was boxing. That was just after he had a moment at Turn 7.
Leclerc on the other hand had to abort his timed lap as he locked up into Turn 1 as well, he kept his Ferrari out of the gravel though.
Russell, after driving out of the pits seemed to have driver over something, and was worried that might have been someone's foot but it was just a cone.
Less than 20 minutes into the session, Hulkenberg was the latest victim of Turn 1 or Tarzan corner, as he locked up and he was sent spinning into the gravel and ended up in the barriers.
"I don't know what happened there. The rear completely locked up on braking," the German told his team.
The first Red flag of the session was out as a result.
The session was resumed with less the 38 minutes on the clock.
After the session was restarted, the Soft tyres made their first appearance in FP2 with Verstappen and Norris the first to put in laps on the red-walled tyres.
Verstappen went fastest, but Norris dropped him to second by 0.025s, only for Piastri to better both and went almost two tenths faster than his teammate.
Russell then went fastest in the Mercedes as Hamilton slotted into third the top five becoming: Russell - Piastri - Hamilton - Norris - Verstappen.
With 33 minutes remaining, Ferrari announced that Sainz will not take part in the rest of FP2 as his SF-24 suffered from a gearbox issue. The #55 Red Car was in the pits and on the stands as the mechanics took it apart.
Replay showed Sainz reporting an issue with his gearbox informing the team that it stayed in seventh gear.
Russell went hard on the kerbs exiting Turn 13 and asked his team to check the floor after the impact.
With the qualifying simulations done, the drivers were back on track for some long runs on higher fuel loads some drivers keeping the Softs other shifting to Mediums a couple on Hards as well.
Long run remained underway till the end of the session, which was concluded as usual by practice starts.
How they finished
Russell went fastest around Zandvoort with a lap time of 1:10,702, 0.061s faster than Piastri in second place while Hamilton was 0.111s slower than his teammate in third.
Norris was 0.259s off the pace in the other McLaren and fourth fastest and 0.025s ahead of Verstappen who was fifth.
Then comes the B-class of F1, led by Fernando Alonso who was sixth fastest but 0.655s off the pace and 0.371s behind Verstappen.
Yuki Tsunoda was seventh fastest for VCARB, over sixth tenths down on the best time and 0.056s ahead of Kevin Magnussen in the Haas.
Charles Leclerc, in a struggling Ferrari, was ninth fastest and 0.741s off the pace and ahead of Albon in tenth.
Dutch GP FP2 Classification
Latest News
Loading
