Dutch Grand Prix – Free Practice 2: Leclerc and Ferrari on top, Ocon lurking, Hamilton in trouble

Under the North Sea sun, the F1 cars are back in action for the 2nd free practice session of the weekend.

Kimi Räikkönen, future retiree, took the lead while the local of the stage, Max Verstappen, chose to bring up the rear.

Already, the first lap times have fallen in the first minutes of the session. No driver has opted for soft tires. Valtteri Bottas sets the fastest time in 1:11.664, then 1:11.911 for Lewis Hamilton. We are already at the times of the first free practice session.

Max Verstappen lapped at a moderate pace in 1:20…

Plot twist: Hamilton broken down!

After about six minutes of session, a Mercedes strangely idling: that of Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time world champion announced “losing power” on the radio, at the start of the second sector. Hamilton causing a session interruption, that is unprecedented.

Red flag in this second free practice session. This stoppage was much more momentary than during the morning, as the Mercedes was able to be parked behind the orange barrier by the marshals quite quickly.

The Briton seemed to have forgotten a little something in his car. Let’s find out what it was!

Resumption of the session

The second free practice session of this Dutch Grand Prix has resumed after a few minutes of interruption. So, this session took place in the absence of number 44.

It was already bustling at the start of the pit lane. Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher have chosen to be the first to go out.

Zandvoort circuit offers very spectacular scenes as various cars pass by.

After 20 minutes of session, Valtteri Bottas leads the way, 29 milliseconds ahead of Max Verstappen and two and a half tenths ahead of Esteban Ocon, excellent 3rd!

Here again, no one has put on soft tires. Only six drivers have used hard tires, while the rest of the field has put on mediums.

In the last 37 minutes of the session, Valtteri Bottas opted for the soft tires. The Finnish driver, likely heading to Alfa Romeo next year, improved his time to 1:11:353. A relatively small difference compared to his performance on mediums.

Then, two minutes later, a blue car came flying out of turn 14 banking on soft tires: that of Esteban Ocon, securing nothing less than the best time in 1:11:074! A very impressive performance, placing the Normand almost three tenths ahead of Bottas.

The other Frenchman, Pierre Gasly, was in 13th place at this stage of the session, but quickly reacted just before the half-hour mark: 3rd fastest time for AlphaTauri #10.

Ocon’s best time continued to hold: Bottas failed by 58 thousandths of a second behind the Alpine, despite setting purple sectors 2 and 3. Fernando Alonso was also going to place himself very well: 3rd best time for the Asturian Bull, who placed the second Alpine 0.495 second behind the sister car, then leading the session.

Mazepin goes off track and red flag

As we enter the last half hour of free practice, Nikita Mazepin made a mistake at the entrance of turns 11 and 12. Max Verstappen was improving, but saw his chances to improve disappear, as did Lance Stroll, on his way to setting the best time.

The session resumed with 25 minutes remaining in the allotted time. Antonio Giovinazzi and Sergio Pérez chose to go out first.

The top spot is now owned by Charles Leclerc, the first to break the 1:11 barrier – specifically, 1:10:902 for the Monegasque. Fifth best time for Pierre Gasly, at a respectable distance from the Red Bull flagship and Max Verstappen.

Carlos Sainz also joined the Ferrari party by taking second place in 1:11:056. The Ferraris seem quite comfortable at Zandvoort!

The last quarter of an hour marked the start of the work on the running pace. End of the stopwatch hunt!

The Aston Martins are somewhat in the background. In any case, the race laps, especially on soft tires, are around a pace of 1:15 for Sebastian Vettel for example. This seems relatively interesting for the race.

Max Verstappen, on his race stints, completed 9 laps on his soft tires. It is worth noting that Pirelli has brought the C1, C2, and C3 range, which are the hardest compounds in its range.

The session therefore concludes on this note: fastest time for Charles Leclerc, ahead of his teammate Sainz, and an excellent Esteban Ocon in his Alpine. An anonymous session for Mercedes, with Bottas only in 4th, Hamilton in 11th due to his early session breakdown.

See you tomorrow at noon for the third and final free practice session.