2024 Dutch Grand Prix - Friday

George tops times as F1 returns in changeable conditions.

• Wind, rain, and a little bit of sun greeted the paddock as the 2024 season resumed post-summer break at Zandvoort.
• The inclement weather conditions impacted FP1, with both the full wet and intermediate tyre used early on.
• As a dry line emerged, both Lewis and George switched to the Soft compound tyre in the closing minutes.
• The wind remained but a dry circuit was waiting for FP2. After initial work on the Medium compound, George clocked the fastest time of the day on the Soft tyre, with Lewis just behind in P3.
• The usual long run work concluded the session with the team getting a look at both the C2 Medium and C3 Soft compounds courtesy of George and Lewis.
  

George Russell

It was good to get back in the car and into the swing of things with the first day of running here in Zandvoort. It was difficult out there due to the windy conditions. It is perhaps the windiest conditions I can remember driving an F1 car in over the past few years. Nevertheless, the car was performing really well and the updated floor we brought to Spa seemed to be working effectively.

The pack at the front seems to be quite close once again. We expect to be facing another fascinating battle across the rest of the weekend for the podium spots. That said, it could all be very different tomorrow as the conditions likely change once again. I’m excited to get back in the car tomorrow and see what we can do.

Lewis Hamilton

Today wasn’t a bad start to the weekend. Everything went well, the car was feeling alive, and we were near the front of the field on the timing screens. We understand our car and that is making starting each weekend on the front foot much easier. We can make small tweaks from there, rather than big changes, and that is making it much easier to find performance. That was the case today and sets us up well for the rest of the weekend.

There’s still more time to find out for sure. I didn’t get the most out of my lap on the Soft compound tyre so that’s encouraging for qualifying. We will go through the data on the long runs this evening and see if we can make further improvements overnight.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

Today was an encouraging start to the weekend. The conditions in FP1 were particularly tricky with very strong winds and heavy rain making it difficult to get a good read on the updated floor we brought to Spa. Nevertheless, what we saw looks in line with expectations, so we'll continue the weekend with that fitted to both cars.

Across both FP1 and FP2 the car has been working well. The single lap performance looks solid, although it's likely to be tight with Verstappen and the McLarens in qualifying as they all looked strong today. We have a few areas we can improve in that regard but no doubt the others are in a similar position. Our long runs weren’t quite as strong. We can certainly find a bit of pace with tyre management and an improved balance, but Norris looked very good this afternoon and we will need to take a step to get on his pace. We'll work hard overnight to find those gains; we've shown in recent races that, if we get the car in the right window, we can be competitive and on the basis of today, it looks like we will should be in the fight near the front tomorrow.