F1 title contender Lando Norris topped the opening practice session for the Dutch Grand Prix, outpacing McLaren team-mate and championship leader Oscar Piastri by almost three tenths of a second as Formula 1 returned to action at Zandvoort following the sport’s summer break. 

In cool and blustery conditions, Piastri set the pace in the opening minutes, ahead of home hero and three-time Dutch Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen, with Norris third. Verstappen made his way to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:12.101, but then the session was almost immediately red-flagged. First, the Dutch driver’s Red Bull team-mate Yuki Tsunoda had an off, with the Japanese race spinning and recovering at Turn 11, and then Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli locked up into Turn 9 and got mired in the gravel trap. 

The session resumed eight minutes later, with Mercedes’ driver George Russell quickly climbing to P2 with a time of 1:12.130, but yellow flags soon came out as Williams’ Carlos Sainz mirrored Tsunoda by spinning off at Turn 11 before continuing. 

Verstappen improved to 1:11.986 to marginally extend his advantage over Russell but Piastri quickly posted a lap of 1:11.794 to take P1. Norris was back on track, however, and the Briton, who arrived in the Netherlands on the back of a pre-break win in Hungary, roared to a time of 1:10.278s to put distance between himself and team-mate Piastri. The Australian found an improvement to log a lap of 1m10.700 as both took on Pirelli's soft compound. The championship then found more time to close the gap to 0.292s thanks to a lap of 1:10.570s.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso then moved into the top three, half a second off Norris.  

The field then moved back to harder compounds for longer runs and the order remained largely static. One outlier was Lance Stroll in the other Aston Martin. 

The Canadian went out again on Soft compound Pirelli tyres and he delivered a lap of 1:10.779 to take P3, six hundredths of a second ahead of team-mate Alonso. 

Williams’ Alex Albon took fifth place, with Verstappen in P6, almost a second behind Norris. Russell took seventh, followed by Sainz and Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto. Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10 in the Alpine ahead of both Racing Bulls cars.

After the chequered flag Verstappen had an off-track moment on his out lap when following a practice start he appeared to lock up on entry to Turn 1 and slid off into the gravel.

2025 FIA Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix – Free Practice 1 
1 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:10.278 35 218.167
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:10.570 0.292 32 217.265
3 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:10.779 0.501 25 216.623
4 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:10.841 0.563 25 216.433
5 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:11.171 0.893 33 215.430
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:11.218 0.940 24 215.288
7 George Russell Mercedes 1:11.386 1.108 29 214.781
8 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:11.458 1.180 33 214.565
9 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:11.509 1.231 30 214.412
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:11.613 1.335 30 214.100
11 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:11.753 1.475 29 213.683
12 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:11.772 1.494 30 213.626
13 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:11.875 1.597 30 213.320
14 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:11.951 1.673 32 213.095
15 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:11.960 1.682 28 213.068
16 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:12.126 1.848 24 212.577
17 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:12.144 1.866 29 212.524
18 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Renault 1:12.276 1.998 27 212.136
19 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:12.564 2.286 30 211.294
20 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:14.275 3.997 6 206.427