What the teams said – Friday at the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix from ...

Special Contributor

Becky Hart

15 hours ago

Both Mercedes drivers looked quick from the off at Zandvoort, comfortable in the changing conditions. They also looked strong in the dry second session, Russell winding up on top of the timing sheet despite an early trip through the gravel. With Hamilton just a tenth behind in P3, Mercedes look very strong over one lap – which could bode well for them going into qualifying, which has been their relative weakness this year.

WATCH: Ride onboard with Russell for the fastest lap of Friday in Zandvoort

Lewis Hamilton – FP1: 1:13.006, P3; FP2: 1:10.813, P3

“Today wasn’t a bad start to the weekend. Everything went well, the car was feeling alive, and we were near the front of the field on the timing screens. We understand our car and that is making starting each weekend on the front foot much easier. We can make small tweaks from there, rather than big changes, and that is making it much easier to find performance. That was the case today and sets us up well for the rest of the weekend. There’s still more time to find out for sure. I didn’t get the most out of my lap on the soft compound tyre so that’s encouraging for qualifying. We will go through the data on the long runs this evening and see if we can make further improvements overnight.”

George Russell - FP1: 1:13.142, P5; FP2: 1:10.702, P1

“It was good to get back in the car and into the swing of things with the first day of running here in Zandvoort. It was difficult out there due to the windy conditions. It is perhaps the windiest conditions I can remember driving an F1 car in over the past few years. Nevertheless, the car was performing really well and the updated floor we brought to Spa seemed to be working effectively. The pack at the front seems to be quite close once again. We expect to be facing another fascinating battle across the rest of the weekend for the podium spots. That said, it could all be very different tomorrow as the conditions likely change once again. I’m excited to get back in the car tomorrow and see what we can do.”

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

“Today was an encouraging start to the weekend. The conditions in FP1 were particularly tricky with very strong winds and heavy rain making it difficult to get a good read on the updated floor we brought to Spa. Nevertheless, what we saw looks in line with expectations, so we’ll continue the weekend with that fitted to both cars. Across both FP1 and FP2 the car has been working well. The single lap performance looks solid, although it’s likely to be tight with Verstappen and the McLarens in qualifying as they all looked strong today. We have a few areas we can improve in that regard but no doubt the others are in a similar position. Our long runs weren’t quite as strong. We can certainly find a bit of pace with tyre management and an improved balance, but Norris looked very good this afternoon and we will need to take a step to get on his pace. We’ll work hard overnight to find those gains; we’ve shown in recent races that, if we get the car in the right window, we can be competitive and on the basis of today, it looks like we will should be in the fight near the front tomorrow.”

Norris looked scintillatingly quick in both the wet and the dry on Friday in the opening session, topping the timing sheets from Verstappen. Piastri was pushing his team mate hard, although he didn’t get a lap in late on when the track was at its best. Roll on FP2 and, despite a brief foray back to the pits for a new helmet after being unable “to see” according to his team radio, Piastri looked quick and wound up fractionally behind Russell. With Norris also in the mix, McLaren are well placed heading into the weekend.

MUST-SEE: Join Norris for a lap of Zandvoort with F1’s spectacular gyro cam

Lando Norris – FP1: 1:12.322, P1; FP2: 1:10.961, P4

“A pleasing first day back on track. We made some good progress, and the car is in a strong position ahead of quali tomorrow. It’s close towards the front of the pack, so we’ll be working hard overnight as a team to get everything out of our package.”

Oscar Piastri - FP1: 1:13.230, P7; FP2: 1:10.763, P2

“It’s been a good Friday. The pace looks pretty solid over one lap and the long run pace looks decent so far. It’s nice to be back in the car and it’s always fun driving around here. It’s been a good first day.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

“Zandvoort today allowed us to test the car in all conditions, going from the wet to the intermediate to the dry tyres in FP1, and then in FP2 we had good running on the soft and medium tyres to compare them with a view to their potential usage in the race. It’s been a very useful day, not only for race preparation but also for gathering good data and performing checks on the aerodynamic upgrades we have this weekend. We’ll now focus on maximising our performance for the rest of the weekend. We know the weather is a variable, so we need to ready for anything – but day one in the Netherlands seems very encouraging.”

Verstappen opted to sit out the early action in the wet FP1 session, emerging just as the track was ready for intermediates. He did immediately spin though, which wasn’t the ideal start to his weekend. From there, the Dutchman soon got up to speed and went toe to toe with Norris late on for the fastest lap. In the dry second session, the Dutchman once again looked in the mix towards the front but certainly isn’t showing anyone a clear pair of heels here. As for Perez, he struggled to spot his braking point down to Turn 1 in the gusty conditions, locking up and running wide to finish further down the order.

READ MORE: Verstappen admits Red Bull simply ‘too slow’ as home hero ends Friday practice at Zandvoort searching for answers

Max Verstappen – FP1: 1:12.523, P2; FP2: 1:10.986, P5

“Of course, in FP1 we didn’t get a lot of running in but the weather cleared up for FP2 and as a result we could see a little bit more where we were. We didn’t quite have the pace on the long and short runs and at the moment there isn’t a clear answer on how to improve this, but we will look into things. This is where we have been the last few races, so it isn’t a surprise but we need to work to find a little bit more form ahead of qualifying tomorrow.”

Sergio Perez - FP1: 1:14.279, P12; FP2: 1:11.581, P12

“It was tricky conditions today between a wet FP1 and a dry FP2. We tested quite a bit out on track with set-up and it looks and feels a little bit better than the order shows from today. I made a mistake and went off in Turn 12 so I lost a couple of tenths. But overall we’ve got some work to do especially in the long run pace to catch the people ahead. We ran both cars differently today, so there’s lots to analyse. Qualifying will be important here so we need to maximise tomorrow.”

Ferrari were the only team to opt for the medium tyres at the end of FP1 as the track started to dry out. As a result, it was hard to get a representative read as to where they stood in the pecking order, although Sainz’s P4 time certainly stood out. But the Spaniard wasn’t able to repeat that sort of lap in FP2, having to sit out the majority of the session with a gearbox issue. That leaves him without any laps on the soft tyre going into the weekend. Leclerc’s session was more straightforward, and he’ll be sharing his data with his team mate later on.

Charles Leclerc - FP1: 1:14.306, P13; FP2: 1:11.443, P9

"It was tough, as expected I would say. We don’t quite match the pace of our competitors in front, but I think it’s better than what it looks like on the timesheets today. We have work to do in order to be in a place where we can fight for the win.

"I will do everything to extract the maximum in qualifying, but the gaps we are looking at for the moment are too big to do anything special. If we can get to within 2 to 3 tenths, then maybe we can fight for a good spot in qualifying, otherwise I predict a difficult weekend for us."

Carlos Sainz - FP1: 1:13.074, P4; FP2: 1:13.108, P19

"Today was not an easy day. This morning, due to bad weather, we weren’t able to run properly and unfortunately during FP2 we had a problem with the gearbox in the first run, so overall I couldn’t do many laps.

"Tomorrow we’ll try to make up for the time lost and build confidence around the track. We have work to do to close the gap to the top."

Aston Martin were one of the first teams to gamble on the move to slicks in the wet-dry FP1 session, but having set their lap times early they tumbled down the order as the track continued to dry. Their lap times in FP2 looked more representative, with Alonso climbing into the top 10 and Stroll not too far back. That puts them in a good position to push for Q3 slots tomorrow.

Fernando Alonso – FP1: 1:14.467, P15; FP2: 1:11.357, P6

“It’s good to be back and it feels so fast after four weeks without driving a Formula 1 car. It’s a fun track and the conditions were very difficult today, with very high winds and some rain around in FP1. Through the corners you could really feel the wind but it was the same for everyone. Tomorrow will be a little more unpredictable with the weather, so let’s see what we can do.”

Lance Stroll - FP1: 1:14.151, P11; FP2: 1:11.576, P11

“It’s good to get back on track after a couple of weeks off. This is a great circuit and we got some dry running in the second session which is valuable. We worked through our run plans and learned a lot, so it was a productive Friday. Tonight we’ll do our homework and see what we can improve ahead of qualifying tomorrow.”

Williams are running a big upgrade package here, and at first view it looks to have helped them climb up the order. Albon finished in the top 10 in FP1, and repeated that trick in the second hour of practice. With this track last year being one of their strongest, the team seem full of confidence heading into the weekend – especially as Vowles has revealed they have even more upgrades to come in the next few races.

Alex Albon - FP1: 1:13.159, P6; FP2: 1:11.550, P10

“Both sessions were okay today, however FP1 felt a little stronger while we’ve been learning about our new aero package and update. Everything seems to be pretty in line with where we expected it to be, and the car doesn’t feel drastically different but that’s also what we expected. We’re chipping away at it, but I think we need a bit more pace and there are definitely some areas we know need fixing. Coming back from summer break, the bigger issue is feeling a bit rusty and compiled with the wind, rain and a tight and sandy track, it’s just about trying to get back into the groove.”

Logan Sargeant - FP1: 1:15.605, P17; FP2: 1:11.818, P15

“It’s hard to tell how the upgrades are performing with the wind being so strong making it feel unpredictable and tricky to drive. Today’s really a day to get the rust off and feel comfortable in the car again after the summer break and we did that. There are definitely some points to improve on tomorrow, but we ticked off most of what we needed to do. There’s always opportunity, so we’ll focus on ourselves and aim to put the best car together come qualifying.”

Sven Smeets, Sporting Director

“The weather in FP1 didn’t really help us to get a first understanding of our upgrade package. A wet, sandy track and wind gusts up to 90km/h made it a difficult session. Nevertheless, we made the most of it and we had a good session in FP2. There are definitely some points that we can improve overnight for tomorrow, but we can already see that it is going to be very tight in the midfield. It looks at the moment that we’ll start with a dry qualifying, but rain is expected from around 1600hrs onwards so it could very quickly become a tricky afternoon.”

Ricciardo’s quest for Zandvoort redemption got off a quiet start, with the Aussie keeping out of trouble in the opening session. Tsunoda also had a steady start to his weekend, but in FP2 he managed to climb up the leaderboard and into the top 10. Ricciardo also improved, which bodes well for qualifying.

Daniel Ricciardo - FP1: 1:16.231, P19; FP2: 1:11.630, P13

“It was windy today and we tried different compounds due to the weather conditions. I think there’s a bit to find as we struggled a little bit more than anticipated, especially in the afternoon where Yuki was a lot quicker on the hard tyres compared to me on the mediums, so we’ll have a look at it. It’s a fairly short lap around here and the field is really tight, so every little bit is going to count. We’ll start to look at the setup tonight trying to make some adjustments, and hopefully find something more ahead of tomorrow.”

Yuki Tsunoda - FP1: 1:14.418, P14; FP2: 1:11.374, P7

“We definitely had a good start to the second half of the season. Especially in FP2, we ended up top 10. The car felt pretty solid, we just need a bit of fine tuning for qualifying tomorrow, but we’re not too far away. Considering we’re dealing with these kind of winds, the car seems consistent and quite balanced, so I felt confident straight away from FP1. With the track being so up and down with massive banking, I enjoyed it. The team is positive, we just have to do as well tomorrow.”

Alan Permane, Racing Director

“A tricky morning with the weather and high winds, we were a little bit cautious in FP1 and didn’t want to risk the car, which then reflected on our position in the timesheets. FP2 was a much better session performance wise. There’s still some lap time to find, Yuki had a bit of traffic on his quickest lap and Daniel’s not so happy with his balance, he seemed to struggle a little bit with his rear end. We’ve had plenty of good feedback and information to look at overnight and I’m sure we can improve for tomorrow.”

Hulkenberg was the driver to struggle the most at the start of FP1, locking up and running through the gravel on numerous occasions. With the wind gusts measuring 76kph at one point, it could have been he just got the worst of the weather. Or more likely, he was struggling with some sort of car issue – as he locked up again early on in FP2, spinning into the barriers and bringing out the red flags. That ended his day early, so it was left to Magnussen to explore what was possible in the upgraded VF-24, the Dane managing a solid top-10 position to lift the spirits of the team.

WATCH: Hulkenberg brings out red flags as he smacks into barriers during FP2 in Zandvoort

Nico Hulkenberg - FP1: 1:13.563, P8; FP2: 1:13.296, P20

“It was a very unexpected, very sudden rear lock event that I didn’t foresee and didn’t expect in the way that it happened. It was definitely a wind gust that caught me out; I had a little more brake pressure than before but I didn’t brake later. It was on the edge, and two or three more circumstances tipped it over the edge and made it look quite dramatic. Luckily, it wasn’t a big impact and there was next to no damage, but obviously the lost time is the prize that we pay. The midfield – or second pack where we are – looked close together and compact, so we’re definitely in the mix but I’ve made it harder for myself with less preparation time.”

Kevin Magnussen – FP1: 1:13.597, P9; FP2: 1:11.430, P8

“The conditions aren’t necessarily representative as FP1 was wet, but we got a little bit of running in the dry, although it was kind of still damp. FP2 was good; I had good pace and a good feeling in the car so that’s positive. These days it’s so close that if someone ran five or 10 kilos less or more fuel, it changes the picture, so I’m always cautious. I think compared to last year, this car is quite different in certain areas, and I definitely feel an improvement. There are still issues we want to improve but that’s normal.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“The day was a mixture. FP1’s conditions were tricky, but I think we managed the session well; that level of wind gust is extreme. When we managed to run on inters and slicks, the car balance was a bit off, but it was a decent start. It was dry for FP2 but Nico’s session was cut short unfortunately because he locked up, so we’re looking into that. Looking into what Kevin has done – both his quali sim and long run – he was pretty decent. We’ve got fine-tuning to do tonight to improve a bit more but from Kevin’s side we got decent data and it was a good Friday.”

Alpine started the day by announcing their driver line up for next year, but having caused some early headlines, they had a quieter time of it in the session proper. They ran a similar programme to the rest but it remains to be seen how much fuel they had in their car and thus, how much time they’ve got left to find. Gasly at least climbed up the order in FP2, but the top 10 looks a stretch on current form.

Esteban Ocon - FP1: 1:15.796, P18; FP2: 1:12.061, P17

“It was not the easiest day for us today, where we have started slightly on the backfoot and need to find some improvements. We will need to turn things around overnight and there is lots of work ahead of us before tomorrow to improve and get us to a better position. We have seen some inconsistency in terms of our performance over the course of the last couple of races and we are prepared to put the work in. We made quite a few set-up changes after Free Practice 1 so we will need to review where our lack of performance here comes from, but we already have some pretty good clues as to what is required to improve so that we can be more competitive during Qualifying tomorrow. Congratulations to Jack [Doohan] on the news of his race seat in 2025. I’m delighted for him, he’s a top guy and he definitely deserves an opportunity to race in Formula 1.”

Pierre Gasly - FP1: 1:22.036, P20; FP2: 1:11.644, P14

“It’s been a pretty challenging first Friday back after the summer break here in Zandvoort. The conditions were certainly tricky with the high winds and rain but the track did dry quite quickly. I missed out on some running in Free Practice 1 and the feeling in the car in Free Practice 2 was not too great, so I’m sure we will have a good look through everything tonight and see what we can improve. It looks like the conditions will continue to be tough for the rest of the weekend. That’s not a bad thing as I do quite like mixed conditions. Finally, I am very happy for Jack after today’s announcement. I’ve seen him evolve within the team over the last 18 months. He works very hard, he’s very involved and it’s a great opportunity for him, so I’m looking forward to continuing our work together as team-mates.”

Shwartzman ran in FP1 in place of Bottas, giving a good account of himself in the very difficult conditions. With the wind gusting and rain falling, a costly mistake would have been easy to make but he kept his copybook clean. Bottas was keen to get going in FP2, even racing Russell on his first out-lap.But he settled down after that and got plenty of running in. As for Zhou, he was called to the stewards to explain when he’d been released into the path of Ricciardo in the pit lane in FP2, which is never an ideal start to the weekend.

Valtteri Bottas - FP2: 1:12.206, P18

“Coming back to the car after a few weeks off and finding these blustery conditions was definitely tricky! It was not easy to find the right balance today and, with the conditions changing so quickly, it was difficult to find the rhythm you needed to get into the flow, especially on such a track. However, we have one more practice session tomorrow on top of the work we are going to do tonight: our job will be to find a bit more stability, and that will translate into more performance. We know we are still lacking something in terms of pace to be in the top ten, but tomorrow the conditions will be difficult again and, together with some luck, that could help us. For now, we need to focus on doing our part to get a better overall balance.”

Robert Shwartzman - FP1: 1:14.658, P16

“First of all, I would like to thank Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber and Ferrari for this opportunity. The team was super welcoming to me right away, and I also got to see some familiar faces as well, people I worked with at Ferrari before. It had been nearly a year since I last drove a Formula One car, back in Abu Dhabi, and once I got here, I knew I had to adapt quickly. On top of it, Zandvoort is possibly one of the most challenging racetracks, although a very enjoyable one to drive, and with today’s mixed conditions I needed to be on it straight away. Overall, I can say I am happy with today’s performance: it’s been a good learning session despite the rain and strong winds, and the car felt good. I got stuck in some traffic towards the end, which made me lose some time and made it difficult to put in a better laptime – I think I could have improved even further on the slicks had we had one extra lap. Still, it’s been a good day, and I am happy with how things have gone.”

Zhou Guanyu - FP1: 1:13.965, P10; FP2: 1:11.934, P16

“It feels great to be back on track – and Zandvoort always brings good energy. Today was quite a smooth day for us overall: the track and wind conditions were quite challenging, but we still managed to complete two clean sessions that allowed us to collect valuable data and information. It looks like we are not too far off, but we still need to find more pace, especially on high fuel. As in previous races, we’ve seen that our chances are better when conditions are mixed compared to a fully dry track. With some rain and wind likely tomorrow, we’re hopeful for a good day that will allow us to seize our opportunities, putting us in a good position for Sunday’s race.”

Mario Isola, Motorsport Director

“This first day was partially affected by the changing weather conditions, so there was not much useful data to be gathered from the first session, but much more was acquired in the second one. At first glance, we can say that all three dry compounds seem to be viable for use in the race. With the track conditions and temperatures experienced in FP2, the C1 proved to be very competitive and consistent, with the C2 not far off in terms of performance, as predicted in simulations prior to the weekend, with a difference of around eight to nine tenths between the Soft and the Medium and four tenths between the Medium and the Hard. The C3 demonstrated higher degradation, but not to the point of ruling it out as an option for Sunday’s race, also because there was no sign of graining.

HIGHLIGHTS: Watch the action from FP2 in Zandvoort as Russell sets the pace while Hulkenberg crashes out

“One interesting point will be seeing how the grip from the track surface evolves over the next two days. It is meant to rain tomorrow morning which, combined with the wind, should reset the conditions a bit. But the forecast is better for qualifying and for the race, which should be run in similar conditions to those in FP2, although track temperature could be a few degrees higher.”