Antonelli tops Norris in Dutch GP practice

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli topped the sole practice session at the Dutch Grand Prix for Mercedes ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris and Antonelli's teammate George Russell.

The session started in cool and damp conditions, with patches of water from earlier rain and an ambient temperature of 66 degrees F convincing teams to send their drivers out on intermediate tires for their exploratory opening laps. It became quickly clear, however, that a blustery breeze was rapidly drying the circuit, and most drivers were quickly in for slick tires to get on with their usual program.

Antonelli moved to top spot early, but he was shuffled down by the Ferrari drivers as the session progressed and track grip rapidly ramped up with more running, and he committed a clumsy spin at Turn 10, apparently while trying to get out of the way of a quicker car behind him.

The switch to the soft compound in the final minutes also appeared to go against him when he was held up by Nico Hulkenberg out of Turn 3, forcing him to abandon his lap. His second attempt, however, was more than good enough to rocket back to the top of the standings with a best time of 1m12.949s.

Norris also gave up his first softs lap, which had begun uncompetitively, but was able to recover with his second flyer despite some traffic in the second and third sectors. A third attempt in the final moments of the hour moved him to 0.121s adrift of Antonelli with the fastest first and second splits.

Russell was another late improver, setting his best time at the end to move to within 0.125s of his session-topping teammate.

The Ferrari drivers were among the first to set their quickest soft laps only to find themselves drift down the order. Lewis Hamilton led the way in fourth, 0.19s off the pace – despite having run through the gravel at Turn 11 earlier in the session and potentially damaging his floor – while Charles Leclerc needed two laps to take fifth, a further 0.09s adrift.

Ferrari has brought extensive upgrades to the floor this weekend, but Italian media reported that neither Hamilton nor Leclerc had it fitted during practice to avoid damaging the part.

Oscar Piastri was the first front-runner to move into top spot on softs but the McLaren driver faded late to sixth and 0.659s off the pace.

Nico Hulkenberg was an impressive seventh for Audi on the medium tire, the German 0.835s off the pace. Teammate Gabriel Bortoleto, also on mediums, was 0.2s further back in ninth, the Audi pair sandwiching Pierre Gasly in his upgraded Alpine in eighth.

Arvid Lindblad for Racing Bulls used medium tires to pip Red Bull Racing home favorite Max Verstappen for 10th and 11th.

Fernando Alonso took his Aston Martin and upgraded Honda motor to 12th ahead of Franco Colapinto, who does not have teammate Gasly’s upgrades this weekend.

Liam Lawson’s first session back at Red Bull Racing, where he is substituting for the injured Isack Hadjar, delivered him 14th in the order, 0.536s slower than Verstappen, though the Kiwi cost himself a quicker lap with a snap at Turn 11 before being balked by traffic.

Haas teammate Oliver Beraman and Esteban Ocon followed in 15th and 16th ahead of the returned Yuki Tsunoda – replacing Lawson at Racing Bulls – who used medium tires to end the session 18th and 0.825s behind teammate Lindblad.

Lance Stroll was 18th in the second Aston Martin car ahead of medium-shod Alex Albon, whose Williams led Cadillac teammates Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez by 0.2s.

Carlos Sainz had multiple offs into the gravel through the session and picked up floor damage on his Williams, leaving him more than 0.6s off the back of the pack and 3.396s off the pace on medium tires.

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