McLaren’s Lando Norris headed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in a first practice session at the Dutch Grand Prix that started in wet and wild conditions and ended under blue skies.
A blustery wind, gusting at up to more than 70km/h, continued throughout the session but the track, wet at the start, was dry by the end of the hour.
Norris was 0.201 seconds faster than Verstappen, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton third fastest, 0.684secs off the pace, his fastest lap time affected by traffic.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, on medium-compound tyres rather than the soft used by those ahead of him, was fourth.
Mercedes’ George Russell was fifth, from Williams’ Alex Albon and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
The difficult conditions led to a number of drivers making mistakes and spinning or running wide – including Verstappen at the chicane towards the end of the lap – but no one crashed.
Norris’ performance was encouraging for McLaren, who have brought their first performance upgrade to the car since the Miami Grand Prix in May.
The team say the lap-time step expected is not as big as that from the Miami parts, which leapt McLaren up to become Red Bull’s major rivals.
Red Bull also have an upgrade as they seek to re-establish themselves as F1’s pace-setters.
The unsettled conditions are expected to continue through the day at the Zandvoort track, which nestles in sand dunes on the North Sea coast.
