Here is our full transcript from the final free practice session for the 2023 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, which took place earlier today at the Zandvoort circuit located in the dunes north of Zandvoort, the Netherlands, near the North Sea coast line:
Good morning and welcome back to a wet Zandvoort. Yep that’s right, it’s raining so everything the drivers and teams learned yesterday can largely go out of the window. This track is already a real challenge in the dry, so adding rain into the mix will really sort the good from the great. The big news on Friday in Zandvoort was Daniel Ricciardo being ruled out of the remainder of the weekend after breaking his hand in a crash. Having returned from hospital to the paddock yesterday evening, Ricciardo suggested he will not look to rush his recovery, with the Italian Grand Prix coming up next weekend. Ricciardo’s misfortune has presented a big opportunity for Liam Lawson, who will be looking to make the most of his competitive F1 debut later today.
Away we go for Final Practice and it’s the home hero Max Verstappen who is first out on track on the wet tyres. Liam Lawson soon joins him out there as the sun appears from the clouds.
55 mins to go: Max Verstappen crawls around the banked Turn 3 and loses the rear of the car. He just about saves it and avoids the barrier. The Dutchman says: “I don’t know what happened there. I just suddenly lost all the grip.” It’s Verstappen fastest for now on a 1:27.514. Eight drivers have set a lap time and the McLarens have gone straight out there on the intermediates.
Red flag: We have a red flag because Kevin Magnussen has beached his car at the exit of Turn 3. That part of the track is proving trick this weekend.
The light goes green at the end of the pit lane, so Practice Three is back under way. Valtteri Bottas is first on track on the intermediates with 43 minutes to go. The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are now on flying laps with more drivers running on the intermediates. Meanwhile, Lando Norris is told the rain will remain at the same level for the next 15 minutes.
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38 mins to go: Charles Leclerc goes quickest by 0.276s from Max Verstappen then goes straight on at Turn 1. He just about stops his Ferrari in time to avoid the barrier and carries on his way.
37 mins to go: Max Verstappen now takes over at the head of the timesheet – a second and a half clear of Lando Norris. The top two are on the intermediates, with Charles Leclerc’s time in third coming on the full wets.
There goes another one – this time it’s Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who loses the back end of his car and spins off. He’s gone around and found the gravel at Turn 13, the penultimate corner. The car’s not getting out of there without the assistance of a truck, so we’ve got a another red flag.
A challenging morning for the drivers so far, with quite a number going off track with the lack of grip. We’ll see by how much the conditions improve, if at all, in the remaining half of this final practice session. 23 mins to go: Carlos Sainz almost replicates Charles Leclerc’s off by going deep at Turn 1. Like Leclerc, he’s able to go around the gravel trap thanks to a lane of tarmac run-off. “I had a lockup,” the Ferrari driver says.
19 mins to go: Lando Norris was confident in the dry yesterday and is flying along in the wet this morning. He goes quickest by 0.111s from Verstappen and is looking like a pole contender for later on, whatever the conditions are. 17 mins to go: Oscar Piastri is also very quick in these conditions and makes it a McLaren 1-2.
16 mins to go: Make that a McLaren 1-2 the other way around as Lando Norris takes back over P1 from his team-mate by a full 1.2 seconds. 1:23.677 is the new time to beat from the British driver. But expect those lap times to keep falling with the rain now having seemingly stopped.
14 mins to go: With several cars going round and round the Zandvoort circuit, the track is slowly drying and the intermediates are now the tyre to be on. Sergio Perez briefly moves up to second, before Piastri takes back the position, and both Williams are also in the top 10, continuing their strong weekend. 13 mins to go: Esteban Ocon is the latest driver to use the run-off at Turn 1 as he brakes a little too late and nudges the wall lightly. He’s currently down in 19th, with Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly only one place ahead.
RED FLAG: Lawson creates his first stoppage
The AlphaTauri rookie spun off and nudged the advertising boards with his car’s front wing. He managed to get going again and make it back to the pits, but the session’s third red flag had already been thrown. We shouldn’t miss too much of the session’s final 10 minutes as a result at least.
Well that was brief, thankfully. Drivers back out on those intermediates. McLaren still first and second, with Sergio Perez third and Fernando Alonso up in fourth. It’s sixth for Max Verstappen at the moment
6 mins to go: Charles Leclerc goes off again at the first corner and gets away with it for a second time. As that happens, Max Verstappen is on a very quick lap… A drier line starting to appear and a big chunk of time gained for Max Verstappen on his latest lap. He leaps ahead of the McLarens by nearly a full second. Meanwhile, Mercedes fourth and 11th at the moment with Russell and Hamilton respectively.
2 mins to go: It’s a mighty lap from Verstappen as he goes 1.127s quicker than George Russell, who pops up to second. It’s Oscar Piastri in third, then Sergio Perez and Lando Norris.
CHEQUERED FLAG: Verstapen finishes P3 on top. Despite that late off, it’s that man again who finishes final practice ahead of the field. George Russell closed the gap down to just 0.379s mind you, in second place for Mercedes. Late laps from Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton take them into third, fourth and fifth respectively at the end of that eventful hour of running.
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