George Russell beat Oscar Piastri to the highest of the timesheets in a dry second follow session for the Dutch Grand Prix.
Russell mastered the gusty situations — regardless of a visit by way of the gravel at Flip 9 along with his Mercedes — to set the benchmark at 1m10.702s, besting McLaren’s Piastri by simply 0.061s on a busy afternoon at Circuit Zandvoort.
The rain from earlier within the day had utterly dissipated in time for the weekend’s second hour of follow, enabling uninhibited mileage in lieu of misplaced operating from FP1. The dry monitor time was essential for groups and drivers given the forecast for the remainder of the weekend, with Saturday anticipated to be moist however Sunday’s grand prix predicted to be sunny and dry. Consequently, all three dry-weather tire compounds had been on present all through the hour, with groups deploying assorted run plans to clock up laps.
Each Russell and Piastri carried out lengthy stints on the gentle tire, whereas their teammates, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris — third and fourth respectively within the order — frolicked evaluating the medium compound.
With Mercedes and McLaren locking out the highest 4 locations, Max Verstappen dropped to fifth within the order, the Purple Bull man 0.284s off the headline time and forward of a combined set of midfield drivers.
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Fernando Alonso headed the pack at 0.655s off the tempo for Aston Martin, main RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen.
Charles Leclerc was ninth in the one Ferrari that made it to the tip of the session. Whereas the Monegasque accomplished 31 laps, teammate Carlos Sainz obtained by way of solely seven excursions earlier than a gearbox drawback pressured him again to pit lane and into an early retirement for the day.
Catastrophe struck the Spaniard earlier than he had had the possibility to make use of the gentle tire. Having not used it throughout FP1 both, he could not get an opportunity to evaluate the softest rubber earlier than qualifying, relying on the climate, or probably Sunday’s race.
Alex Albon accomplished the highest 10 forward of Lance Stroll, each of whom will see the stewards after the session over an unsafe launch. Sergio Perez radioed his staff that he was struggling along with his brakes, significantly into Flip 1, on his strategy to twelfth forward of Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly because the final drivers to lap inside 1s of the chief.
Logan Sargeant was fifteenth forward of Zhou Guanyu, the Chinese language driver additionally set for a post-session investigation for an unsafe launch forward of Ricciardo.
Esteban Ocon was seventeenth forward of Valtteri Bottas and the retired Carlos Sainz.
Nico Hulkenberg ended the day after simply 10 laps when his rear axle locked on the first nook, sending his Haas automotive spinning off the street and into the limitations.
“I don’t know what occurred there,” he radioed. “Simply the rear utterly locked up on braking.”
The crash triggered a five-minute purple flag to scrub up the wreckage, after which the session obtained again underway with out additional situation.
