Red Flag leaves teams in the dark ahead of Dutch Qualifying

Logan Sargeant’s fiery crash during FP3 at the Dutch Grand Prix has left the entire pitlane lacking information ahead of Qualifying, with the final hour of wet weather running plagued by a lengthy Red Flag delay.

Although 24 hours had passed since FP1, the rain certainly hadn’t, leading to a full-wet start to the impacted final hour of practice ahead of qualifying. 

After a few minutes of exploration, Oscar Piastri was the first driver to set a time, doing so on intermediate tyres after a small dip into the gravel on his out-lap. 

His next attempt was over two seconds quicker, recording a 1:21.850s before the session was halted.

When FP3 did restart for two final minutes, Piastri was overtaken By Max Verstappen at the pit exit, killing his last-ditch attempt and seeing him finish with the seventh fastest time.

Despite saying the team would sort out issues overnight, Daniel Ricciardo started FP3 on a similar note to yesterday’s running.

His first time on the intermediate tyre was 1:25.433s, putting him almost four seconds behind Fernando Alonso’s then-lead time before the Red Flag struck down the bulk of the session.

As a result of Sargeant’s crash, Ricciardo finished as the slowest driver of those who completed a timed lap, down in P18.

As for the rest of the field, and for the second time this weekend, Nico Hulkenberg fell victim to the VF-24’s braking issues, touching the brake on entry to Turn 11 before strongly locking up and hitting the barriers.

Damaging his front wing, Hulkenberg limped back to the pitlane, giving the pit wall a challenge to fix ahead of qualifying.

That challenge was outdone by Logan Sargeant who, just moments later, had a huge moment after dipping his wheel onto the grass by Turn 4.

Sargeant’s Williams burst into flames after crumbling against the barriers and spinning back onto the middle of the road. 

The #2 was ok, however, the faces in the garage and on the Williams pit wall told a different story.

With the American’s car in such a bad way, it would be an impossible task for Sargeant to participate in Qualifying later tonight despite the team’s haste as the FW46 returned to the pitlane. 

The session was red-flagged, allowing marshals ample time to clear the sprayed debris, and the wounded and burnt car for the bulk of the session. 

With just two minutes on the clock, the track was declared green and drivers were able to have one last go around the Circuit Zandvoort.

With the likes of Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen, Carlos Sainz and the yet-to-run Red Bulls needing to test out different aspects of their car, it was a rushed out-lap that lacked the usual pitlane shenanigans.

Max Verstappen was clearly in a rush to put on somewhat of a display in front of his home crowd, getting himself in trouble with race control for crossing the line at the pit exit while overtaking two cars. 

The jumbled run led to a jumbled order as Pierre Gasly ended the session with the fastest time ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen. 

19 cars will most likely take part in qualifying, with Sargeant a safe bet to sit the next session, which takes place a 11:00 PM, out. 

Image: Simon Galloway / LAT Images

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