Lando Norris tops wet to dry opening F1 practice session at Dutch Grand Prix

Lando Norris headed the timesheets ahead of F1 title rival Max Verstappen in the opening practice session for the Dutch Grand Prix.

Conditions started out very tricky at Zandvoort with rain and strong winds in FP1.

This meant that the first 30 minutes of running was fairly uneventful as teams tried out the wet tyre.

With the rain ultimately stopping, conditions slowly improved with a raft of activity in the final 10 minutes.

The two McLarens were the first drivers out on the slicks as Norris and Oscar Piastri traded fastest lap times.

Immediately, Norris was three seconds faster than his best time in the intermediates, and the rest of the field soon followed onto the dry tyres.

In the end, it was Norris who stayed on top with his 1m12.322s.

Norris ended up 0.201s ahead of Verstappen, who spun his RB20 during his first lap on the intermediates earlier in the session.

There was a sizeable gap to Lewis Hamilton behind in third-place, 0.684s off Norris’ top time.

The seven-time world champion was just ahead of Carlos Sainz in fourth, who set his best lap time on the yellow-marked medium tyre.

Ferrari were the only team to opt for the medium tyre, whereas everyone else ran on the softs.

George Russell was fifth-fastest in the second Mercedes, 0.820s down on Norris’ top time.

Alex Albon impressed for Williams in sixth ahead of Piastri and Nico Hulkenberg.

Kevin Magnussen made it two Haas cars in the top 10, while Zhou Guanyu will be encouraged with his session.

Robert Shwartzman was in action for Sauber, standing in for Valtteri Bottas.

The Ferrari junior driver impressed on the intermediates, leading Zhou by over a second.

However, he could only manage the 16th-fastest time come the end of the session, 2.3s down on Norris’ top time.