F1 Dutch GP: Kimi Antonelli tops sole Zandvoort…

Kimi Antonelli was fastest in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix as the championship leader picked up where he left off upon Formula 1’s return from its summer break.

The Mercedes star set a 1m12.949s lap at Zandvoort and was the only driver to go sub-1m13s as second-place went to McLaren’s reigning world champion Lando Norris with a 1m13.070s.

Drivers were quick to head out for the sole practice session of this sprint weekend - one where Zandvoort bids farewell to F1 - with intermediates the initial choice on a damp seaside track.

But conditions were drying, Nico Hulkenberg saying “I think it’s slicks” almost instantly, so it didn’t take long to ditch the intermediates with Oscar Piastri using mediums five minutes in.

The McLaren driver set the pace on a 1m23.311s, 2.251s quicker than Lewis Hamilton who was fastest on intermediates, before reducing that to a 1m20.480s with his next lap.

That drastic improvement was a sign of things to come on the significantly evolving surface as Antonelli surged to the top with a 1m18.264s, 1m16.112s and then a 1m15.531s on his opening three tours.

Lewis Hamilton briefly topped the timings for Ferrari (Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images)

So the lap times kept tumbling, Hamilton, George Russell and Charles Leclerc all graced the top of the leaderboard, while Antonelli also endured a 360 at Turn 10 halfway through the one-hour session.

“I don’t know what the heck happened there,” reported the Mercedes driver.

Everything naturally ramped up when the soft tyre runs commenced with 10 minutes remaining and Piastri was first to beat Leclerc’s medium benchmark (1m14.146s) by setting a 1m13.608s.

Piastri wasn’t fastest for long, though, as Leclerc regained top spot by 0.261s, before a 1m13.139s lap for Ferrari team-mate Hamilton put him 0.208s quicker.

But there was yet more change in the final five minutes on a busy circuit as Norris went quickest with a 1m13.105s, subsequently beaten by Antonelli who was 0.156s faster.

That was enough for the championship runaway leader, who holds a 50-point advantage over runner-up Hamilton, to remain top as Norris failed to improve on his final lap.

Yuki Tsunoda made his F1 return with Racing Bulls (Photo by: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

There was a late change for third though, as Antonelli’s team-mate Russell - who is 59 points behind the Italian - set a 1m13.074s to go 0.065s quicker than fourth-placed Hamilton.

Leclerc rounded out the top five with a lap that was 0.289s off the pace and it was a big gap to Piastri in sixth as the Australian’s 1m13.608s put him 0.659s behind Antonelli.

So, the top three teams - Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren - occupied the first six spots as usual, whereas seventh went to Audi’s Hulkenberg who impressively set a 1m13.784s with the mediums late on.

Team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto opted for a similar strategy with a 1m13.992s late on and he finished ninth, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly splitting the pair after setting a 1m13.911s on hards.

Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad (1m14.285s) completed the top 10 in a poor session for Red Bull, who respectively finished 11th and 14th via Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar’s stand-in Liam Lawson.

The four-time world champion, who on Thursday announced his contract renewal, reported problems with downshifts and oversteer and had an off heading into the final corner.

Sprint qualifying is up next on Friday afternoon.