Lando Norris hits Dutch double-top as F1 title rival under investigation

Lando Norris secured the leading time in an incident-strewn second practice for the Dutch Grand Prix in which McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri faces an investigation.

Norris, who had blitzed his rivals in FP1 at Zandvoort, followed up by setting the fastest time of the day in the second session with a lap of 1:09.890s, finishing narrowly ahead of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, and F1 title rival Piastri.

The Australian, however, faces a date with the stewards after a bizarre pit-lane incident with Mercedes' George Russell on their return to the garage following a second red-flag incident.

The first was after just 11 minutes for a heavy hit into the barriers at the banked turn for Aston Martin's Lance Stroll, with the second after 38 minutes when Williams' Alex Albon headed off track and over the gravel at Turn 1, where he beached his car.

Overall, 17 minutes were lost in the session, but that did not deter Norris, who for the second time this season after Hungary, topped both Friday practice sessions.

Piastri under investigation

With rain approaching, there was a scramble to get out on track as fast as possible and put in as many laps as possible before it hit.

A mix of medium and hard tyres was used initially, with teams even engaging in pit stops to switch to softs to save time, rather than customarily heading back into the garage for a change.

After the opening 10 minutes, Norris had set the leading medium-tyre time to that point in Friday practice overall with a 1:11.294s, and was second on the timesheet when the session was red-flagged after 11 minutes for Stroll's heavy smash.

Haas driver Oliver Bearman had the privilege of being out front, albeit on soft tyres, 0.181s ahead of Norris.

When action resumed, after an 11-minute delay, there was not the rush to return to the track as had been the case at the start, seemingly as the weather radar indicated the approaching rain was due to miss the circuit.

Just four minutes had elapsed, though, when race director Rui Marques had to call for a virtual safety car due to Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar stopping on track on what was his first lap as he had not ventured out before Stroll's smash.

Fortunately, Hadjar came to rest at a point on the track, at Turn 8, where his car could be easily retrieved and rolled behind the barriers out of the way.

There followed a mix of run plans on the full range of Pirelli's rubber, leading to Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg deposing Bearman from top spot by 0.033s before the leading players made themselves heard.

Hamilton, after a miserable FP1 in which he had spun early on, posted the fastest first sector on a set of softs until losing his line out of Turn 9, forcing him into another 360-degree spin, and adding to his growing frustration.

Alonso, who had looked strong in FP1, then went fastest with the first lap below 70 seconds, posting a 1.09.977s, only to soon be edged out by Norris by just 0.087s. Following swiftly behind, Piastri managed to claw his way to within 0.089s.

Within moments, the second red flag followed for Albon's incident out of the gravel at Turn 1.

Under those conditions, a strange incident followed in the pit lane. Piastri had slowed to pull into his pit box, but suddenly turned to his left back into the pit lane as he had approached the wrong area, before heading back to his correct pit box.

Behind him, Russell was forced to abruptly swerve out of the way but seemingly clipping the McLaren. Unsurprisingly, the stewards are to investigate after the session.

Russell finished the session best of the rest behind the leading trio, albeit 0.384s behind Norris.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fifth fastest, 0.588s down, followed by Hamilton, with team-mate Charles Leclerc eighth quickest, the duo either side of Yuki Tsunoda in the second Red Bull.

Alpine's Franco Colapinto and Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10, the latter, 1.190s adrift. Pierre Gasly was surprisingly the slowest in his Alpine, 2.232s down.