Alonso splits McLarens in disrupted FP2 at Zandvoort

Fernando Alonso crashed McLaren’s party during FP2 at Zandvoort, splitting the duo as he pipped Oscar Piastri by just two milliseconds in a session littered with Red Flags and constant interruptions.

Gearing up for Sunday’s 72-lap main event, the second hour of practice got underway with a queue of hasty cars tussling out of the pitlane with the threat of rain – which ultimately never materialised — looming over the seaside circuit. 

The first car on track was piloted by Liam Lawson, with the Racing Bulls driver starting his FP2 campaign on the hard compound tyre as the dark clouds drew closer to the Circuit Zandvoort.

With his teammate’s car under the microscope in the RB garage, Lawson tracked as the only VCARB 02 during the early minutes of FP2.

He climbed his way into sixth fastest with a time of 1:11.717s before the first Aston Martin-induced Red Flag hit. 

Following the session restart, there was yet another disruption to the hour, however, this time it was a Virtual Safety Car after Isack Hadjar was ominously forced to retire to the side of the track after reporting “no power”. 

The Kiwi returned to the track on the hard compound tyre, however, a lack of improvement on the clock and a tumble down the order pushed Lawson into making the switch to the soft compound tyre after a second Red Flag. 

Despite the quicker compound, however, the #30 failed to improve from P14, with his fastest time of 1:11.339s holding out through to his post-session practice start on the grid.

The fear of rain forced Piastri out of the pitlane when the light went green to start FP2, with the Australian having a three-tenth deficit to make up to his teammate after the opening practice session.

From the outset of the hour, however, Lando Norris maintained his edge over Piastri, who initially sat over a second behind the #4’s benchmark time. 

Unable to put an uninterrupted run together, the Australian fell down the order and was sitting in P12 at the halfway mark of the session before launching on a fresh set of medium compound tyres.

The fresh rubber aided the McLaren driver in setting the fifth fastest time, however, his time of 1:11.435s was soon bumped down to the border of the top ten.

Using that as motivation, the soft compound was Piastri’s tyre of choice when he rejoined the session, using the C4 to breach the 1m 9s and slot into P3 — just two milliseconds behind Alonso.

Returning to the pitlane due to a Williams-induced Red Flag, Piastri had a strange lapse of judgement as he made his way into the McLaren pit box, failing to spot George Russell in his mirrors as he dawdled back into the fast lane. 

The stewards noted the incident, making certain to look at it after the session concludes. 

With just over ten minutes remaining in FP2, Piastri reverted to a high-fuel set-up, rounding out the first day of running at the Dutch Grand Prix with a few dusty laps on the medium compound tyre.

As for the rest of the field, traffic proved to be an increasing issue around the 4.3km circuit.

Caught up in blue flag brain fog during FP1, Yuki Tsunoda was again in the firing line after blocking Charles Leclerc in the final sector of the Ferrari driver’s flying lap, while youth and experience had a run-in of their own when Alonso labelled Kimi Antonelli “blind” just moments earlier. 

They found their rhythm shortly after, however, FP2 was soon red flagged for a costly accident at Turn 3. 

After locking up on entry to the banked corner, Lance Stroll’s session ended after his Aston Martin plummeted straight into the unforgiving wall at Turn 3.

Despite keeping his hands on the wheel in a similar incident that sidelined Daniel Ricciardo in 2023, Stroll was reportedly ok as he returned to the garage while his crumpled car was cleared from the track. 

The Red Flag came to an end with just under 40 minutes remaining, however, the drivers didn’t rush out of the pitlane — and rightly so when Hadjar’s misfortune threw yet another spanner into the works with a brief VSC. 

It wasn’t a smooth restart for Lewis Hamilton, who experienced his second spin of the day, flat-spotting all four soft compound tyres after dipping his rear left onto the grass through Turn 9. 

The seven-time world champion sat all the way down in P18, while his equally frustrated teammate wasn’t miles either in P14 — both having recorded their fastest laps on the hard compound. 

Leclerc made the switch to the softest available compound moments later, jumping into the top four, albeit nearly a second behind Norris’ benchmark, before Hamilton demoted the #16 while running on his flat-spotted tyres.

Their woes looked minuscule in comparison to Alex Albon’s blunder at the 20-minute mark, with the Williams driver replicating Max Verstappen’s post-FP1 error as he bounced into the barriers at Turn 1.

Getting beached as he tried to reverse from the barriers with a broken front wing, the stagnant Williams brought out the second Red Flag of the session, bringing his teammate’s purple run to an end.

The soft tyre runs kicked off once the session resumed, with Norris still holding a benchmark of 1:09.890s in a top three separated by just 0.089s. 

It was Alonso who separated the McLaren teammates, however, only just, with Piastri settling in two milliseconds behind the Aston Martin driver before rounding out the final ten minutes of the session with high-fuel runs before taking to the grid for their practice starts. 

After a scrappy midday session and a disrupted afternoon session, the grid will spend the evening combing through the varied data in preparation for the final hour of practice tomorrow, leading into the all-important qualifying shootout.

Free Practice 3 will kick off at 19:30 AEST, followed by Qualifying at 23:00 AEST.

Image: Formula 1

Free Practice 2 Results:

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