Lando Norris STUNS Verstappen after going fastest in Dutch Grand Prix FP2

Lando Norris at Circuit Zandvoort — Photo: © LAT Images

Dutch Grand Prix

Norris STUNS Verstappen after going fastest in Dutch Grand Prix FP2

Norris bettered Verstappen by just 0.023s in another dramatic session at Zandvoort

Dan Davis

Friday 25 August 2023 17:11 Updated: 23:16

McLaren's Lando Norris went fastest in FP2 ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, forcing the home favourite Max Verstappen to settle for second.

Norris topped the timesheet with a 1.11:330, showcasing the team's significant strides in performance, with the world champion trailing by 0.023s.

Alex Albon took third spot, continuing his impressive display after a rapid first session of the day, while Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth.

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The session had been brought to an early halt after Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo were embroiled in collisions. The latter was taken to hospital for checks.

When the action resumed and the track had been rubbered in, the lead at the summit continued to change hands, though Norris eventually set the pace.

Yuki Tsunoda clinched fifth, with Pierre Gasly, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso rounding off the rest of the top 10.

Once again, both Ferraris were adrift of the pace, while George Russell, struggling to match Hamilton stride for stride, languished in 14th place.

Verstappen was made to settle for second in front of his home crowd

Crikey!

The red flags were waved just 10 minutes into the session after McLaren hotshot Piastri and the AlphaTauri of Ricciardo both crashed at Turn Four.

Sliding into the cambered corner with pace, Piastri visibly lost the rear of his car and ploughed straight into the wall with a crunching thud.

Just seconds later, Ricciardo, looking to find the line at the same bend, also veered into the barrier, seemingly in an attempt to avoid the beached Piastri.

"I couldn't see the McLaren," Ricciardo admitted over team radio.

Ricciardo was taken to hospital for checks after a crash at Turn Four

Rubbering in

After the restart, the lead at the top began to change hands unpredictably.

Verstappen slotted his Red Bull into second place with around 25 minutes of the session remaining after trailing Norris' best effort by 0.238s.

He suffered from a snap of oversteer out of Turn Three and aired his concern with his car's performance at medium speeds to race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

Promisingly, McLaren and Mercedes found themselves in the thick of the action.

Verstappen's anger

After being impeded during FP1, Verstappen was similarly halted in the midst of an impressive-looking flying lap later in the afternoon.

With his sights set firmly on the top of the timesheets once again, Verstappen found himself stuck behind a queue of cars at the penultimate corner.

Nico Hulkenberg, who was involved in a shunt in the first runnings on Friday, failed to move out of Verstappen's way, forcing the world champion to hit the brakes.

Unsurprisingly, he then let loose a string of expletives.

Verstappen was impeded for the second session in a row at Zandvoort

Faltering Ferrari

Ferrari will certainly be hopeful of more over the rest of the weekend.

Both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz failed to find consistent pace in FP2, while rookie Robert Shwartzmann found himself adrift of the pack earlier in the day.

Despite Leclerc and Sainz pulling on the soft tyres for multiple laps, they were unable to extract enough performance to challenge those at the front.

To compound their woes, Sainz ran through the gravel at Turn 11 before experiencing a further worrying snap in the session's final seconds.