The Albany Gazette - Norris upstages Verstappen in Dutch practice

As Norris celebrated knocking Red Bull's double world champion and runaway series leader off the top of the perch in front of his orange army of fans, the Briton's teammate Oscar Piastri inadvertently provoked Australian mayhem.

Piastri lost control of his McLaren, his car's nose ending up in the barrier, the rear sticking out onto the track, at the banked turn three of Zandvoort's twisty, punishing seaside circuit.

Seconds later Ricciardo came flying through the bend, ending up beside his compatriot in his Alpha Tauri.

"Sorry guys, I didn't see the McLaren," Ricciardo said over the team radio.

Piastri replied firmly in the negative when he was asked if his car could move.

Ricciardo was taken to the medical centre for a check on his wrist as the crane got to work to remove the two out-of-commission cars.

Lance Stroll was one of the first out at the start of the session after being told to box his Aston Martin in the morning's first practice, the Canadian reporting "a funny noise".

Verstappen then had to back out of his first afternoon 'hot' lap to avoid Nico Hulkenberg's Haas smack bang in his way.

"My god, unbelievable," was the scathing reaction of the Red Bull ace, as the FIA promptly investigated the incident for 'impeding'.

Verstappen did not let that scare bother him, quickly jumping to the top of the times, before Piastri and Ricciardo came unstuck.

Once their stricken cars had been removed, the session resumed with 40 minutes remaining, drivers eager to make up for lost time.

-'Weird' -

After a flurry of fastest times Norris relegated Verstappen from top billing by two tenths of a second.

"The car is just medium speed, doing some weird things, maybe it's the brakes" reported Verstappen.

The Ferraris looked uncomfortable, Charles Leclerc posting only the 16th best time in FP1 and reserve driver Robert Shwartzman the slowest, saying the car was a "real handful" to drive.

Carlos Sainz took over from Shwartzman in the afternoon and duly had an outing onto the safety gravel, suggesting the Italian team could be in for a testing weekend at the seaside.

Entering the closing quarter of an hour George Russell, placed 14th compared to Lewis Hamilton in fourth, was unhappy the two Mercedes were together on the track.

"You've put us both on top of each other here" he told his race engineer.

As Piastri watched, frustratingly, from the pits his teammate Norris was still holding Verstappen at bay, with less than one second splitting the top 16, setting up a potentially enthrallingly and wide open qualifying and race.

McLaren are approaching the second half of the season full of optimism after upgrades lifted Norris to back-to-back runners-up spots at Silverstone and Hungary and rookie Piastri to a fine second in the sprint at Spa last time out.

As Sainz tested out the run-off gravel again after "a moment in the last corner", Norris scraped home by just 0.023sec from Verstappen. Alex Albon did a great job in the Williams to take third from Hamilton. Yuki Tsunoda was fifth in the other Alpha Tauri.

Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull, Stroll, Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) and Stroll's Aston teammate Fernando Alonso completed the top 10.

Verstappen had begun his homecoming weekend in familiar fashion, topping the times in Friday's first practice.

The 25-year-old, runaway leader in the standings as he goes for a third world title, remains hot favourite to win his ninth consecutive race on Sunday to match the record of Sebastien Vettel at a track where he has won from pole in the past two years.

(T.Burkhard--BBZ)