Norris upstages Verstappen in second Dutch GP practice

Lando Norris set the pace in second practice for the Dutch Grand Prix but it was a session that was interrupted by a pair of crashes for Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo that left the latter with a potential injury.

There had already been a close call between Nico Hulkenberg and Max Verstappen at the start of the session when it was red flagged after just nine minutes due to two drivers crashing at the same corner within seconds of each other.

Piastri was first to go off at Turn 3, losing the rear on hard tires and sliding into the wall with the right-hand side of his car, sustaining significant damage. With the McLaren prone on the outside of the banking — partly on the racing line due to the proximity of the barrier at that corner — Ricciardo was next on the scene and locked up as he appeared to react to the crash, going straight into the barrier himself.

Piastri’s car was the more heavily damaged of the two but Ricciardo suggested he had hurt his hand in the incident when asked if he was OK by his team over the radio. The Australian was then pictured leaving the medical centre with his arm in a sling during the session and taken to a local hospital for checks.

The interruption meant there was under 40 minutes remaining in the session when it resumed, and Norris at least brought some cheer to the other side of the McLaren garage by setting the pace with a 1m11.330s. Verstappen was second after being more than 0.2s off on his first run, closing the gap to 0.023s having suggested his car was doing “weird things” in medium-speed corners.

Third quickest was Alex Albon as Williams’ strong start to the weekend continued, ending up 0.269s off Norris’ time and ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda.

Pierre Gasly, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso completed the top 10, with both Ferrari drivers in the bottom half of the standings during an extremely close session.

While Charles Leclerc was 11th and within 0.6s of the fastest time, Carlos Sainz had a trip through the gravel at Turn 11 and then another at the penultimate corner as he took part in his first session of the weekend having stepped aside for Robert Shwartzman in FP1. Sainz was still just 0.763s off the pace in 16th, with the Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg the slowest of those to complete the session, both over a second adrift.

Story originally appeared on Racer