Norris Leads FP2, Ricciardo Heads to Hospital

F1 returns this weekend for the Dutch Grand Prix. FP1 took place earlier this morning with Max Verstappen (Red Bull) finishing on top of the session along side Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes). However, the tides turned in FP2 when Lando Norris (McLaren) ran fastest by 0.023 seconds. Verstappen did not seem bothered when ask how he thought the session went, “Pretty good.” he said. “Tried some things on the car. I think FP2 was a little bit more difficult. But I think overall FP2 was really difficult to get a clean lap, there were a lot of cars always around. It was fine, but we have a few things that we want to improve, but even on the long runs the car was handling quite well, so overall I think it was quite a good day.”

Piastri and Ricciardo Crash

FP2 did not end with out incident. Both Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Daniel Ricciardo (Alpha Tauri) crashed out of the session at Turn 3. Piastri lost the rear and spun around into the wall. Ricciardo locked up after not seeing Piastri parked in the turn and locked up sending him into the wall as well. The Alpha Tauri of Ricciardo was also heavily damaged as Ricciardo wasn’t able to slow the car down in time to prevent the contact. Ricciardo was taken to thew hospital for further evaluation after the crash. It was later announced that Ricciardo broke his hand in the accident and will be replace by reserve driver Liam Lawson for the remainder of the weekend.

It is an unfortunate outcome for Ricciardo after making his return to F1 and finally getting acclimated with the car only to sustain an injury before the grand prix. There do no appear to be any obvious reasons why he can’t make a speedy recovery.

Full Dutch Grand Prix FP2 Results