Revealed: How rookie drivers can buy F1 free practice seats for $3.5m
McLaren's court case against IndyCar champion Alex Palou has exposed the price that some drivers will pay to join a Formula 1 free practice session
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McLaren dominated the opening practice session for the Dutch Grand Prix as Lando Norris outpaced Formula 1 championship leader Oscar Piastri.
Norris, the winner of three of the four previous races before the summer break, put on a lap a 1:10.278sec on the soft tyres to outpace his McLaren team-mate by nearly three tenths of a second.
The Briton, who won the Zandvoort race last year, is nine points behind Piastri in the standings going into this weekend’s event.
Aston Martin continued to show strong pace, Lance Stroll finishing as third quickest behind the McLaren duo. Stroll’s team-mate Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest ahead of the Williams of Alexander Albon.
Local hero Max Verstappen, a three-time winner at Zandvoort, didn’t enjoy the kind of start to the weekend he would have liked, finishing nearly a full second behind Norris in sixth position.
The world champion had a bizarre incident, going off the track after the session was over when he overshot Turn 1 having done a practice start.
His Red Bull got stuck in the gravel as a result of the incident.
George Russell was seventh quickest for Mercedes, the Briton going off the track at Turn 1 near the end. He managed to run across the gravel and return to action.
Carlos Sainz in the second Williams, Sauber‘s Gabriel Bortoleto and Alpine driver Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.
The Ferrari team endured a very subdued start to the weekend, with Charles Leclerc down in 14th and Lewis Hamilton in 15th, both men over 1.5 seconds off the pace.
Hamilton had a major scare 10 minutes into the running as he lost control of his Ferrari at high speed at Turn 3, the Briton lucky not to hit anything.
Two other incidents followed almost at the same time as Yuki Tsunoda spun at the final chicane and Kimi Antonelli went off the track at Turn 9.
While the Red Bull driver managed to rejoin, Antonelli’s day was over as he got stuck in the gravel trap, the Italian finishing at the bottom of the times with just six laps completed.
The session was red-flagged for around 10 minutes to recover his Mercedes.
The entirety of the running took place on a dry track, but the sky got much darker and the temperatures dropped as the session progressed, suggesting the threat of rain is real for FP2.
2025 Dutch GP FP1 results
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:10.278 | 34 | |
2 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1:10.570 | +0.292sec | 32 |
3 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:10.779 | +0.501sec | 24 |
4 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 1:10.841 | +0.563sec | 25 |
5 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1:11.171 | +0.893sec | 32 |
6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:11.218 | +0.940sec | 24 |
7 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:11.386 | +1.108sec | 28 |
8 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 1:11.458 | +1.180sec | 33 |
9 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | 1:11.509 | +1.231sec | 30 |
10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 1:11.613 | +1.335sec | 30 |
11 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 1:11.753 | +1.475sec | 28 |
12 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | 1:11.772 | +1.494sec | 30 |
13 | Nico Hülkenberg | Sauber | 1:11.875 | +1.597sec | 30 |
14 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:11.951 | +1.673sec | 32 |
15 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 1:11.960 | +1.682sec | 27 |
16 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | 1:12.126 | +1.848sec | 24 |
17 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | 1:12.144 | +1.866sec | 29 |
18 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | 1:12.276 | +1.998sec | 27 |
19 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | 1:12.564 | +2.286sec | 30 |
20 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 1:14.275 | +3.997sec | 6 |
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