Dutch Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Who else but Verstappen?

The restart has sounded for the grand circus of Formula 1: the legendary Zandvoort circuit, a haven for local hero Max Verstappen, has been the stage and hostilities have begun in the context of the free practice sessions.

At Ferrari, Carlos Sainz has given his seat to Robert Shwartzman, the neo-Israeli, who is doing his first run of the season, on the two sessions dedicated to young drivers.

While France is suffocating, the Netherlands is bathed in a pleasant warmth, with a chance of rain for the weekend. To delight the orange tide, Max Verstappen took to the track first, as expected, and attacked with hard tires.

His 1’15″393 was the first time reference of the day and was not even beaten by Logan Sargeant and Esteban Ocon, both on medium tires. George Russell took the best time, also on hard tires, with a time of 1’14″901.

Robert Shwartzman’s Ferrari started off at a slow pace, while Lewis Hamilton, ready for action, stole the reference from Max Verstappen, who then hammered it home (1’13″275, then 1’13″191). This first session mainly took place on hard and medium tires. Considering that the soft tires could be very useful in the race, it’s best not to use them up.

The McLarens and Aston Martins, expected to perform well, have been rather discreet, as they did not set any times after 20 minutes of the session. Fernando Alonso took to the track on medium tires. However, his time, three seconds off Verstappen’s, suggests that he is attempting to focus on race pace in the early stages.

The tender ones arrive

Then, Logan Sargeant was the first to switch to the red tires and the time is undeniable: 1’12″814, which shows a significant difference between the various compounds in the Pirelli range. Sergio Perez, in search of a fresh start, followed suit, as his position at Williams seems to be under threat.

Pérez lapped in 1’12″439 and the use of soft compound tires for qualifying runs has become widespread: Alex Albon fell just eight thousandths of a second short of Pérez (an impressive time in this Williams car).

In the French team, the two Alpines, in the Gasly-Ocon order, were in the top 10, despite a hierarchy that was difficult to read due to differences in tire work.

Red flag: Hülkenberg out

Lewis Hamilton fitted the soft tires and was on a flying lap worthy of a Q3: but his momentum was halted by Nico Hülkenberg’s off-track excursion: the German from Haas lost control of his VF-23 at turn 13. The red flag was waved a little over a quarter of an hour before the end of the session.

Six minutes were necessary (a fantastic job by the officials, let’s emphasize that) to clear the Haas and allow the pack to resume.

This break allowed Max Verstappen to put on the soft tires: a little drafting from Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri, and there’s a 1’11″852. Fernando Alonso released the horses on his Aston Martin, less than three tenths behind the Dutchman.

It should be noted that the Williams are particularly in good shape, with Albon and Sargeant in 5th and 6th place. Also, it is worth mentioning that everyone in this session set their lap time on soft tires.

The Ferraris, on the other hand, proved to be truly worrying as they were so far off. Max Verstappen, in any case, kept the fastest time, even though he had a small excursion at the chicane of turns 11 and 12.