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When the session resumed with around 40 minutes left on the clock, plenty of drivers took the opportunity to bolt on Pirelli’s soft rubber and pump in some qualifying-style laps, initially bringing a 1m 10.986s from Verstappen and a 1m 10.961s from Lando Norris.
Piastri and his recovered ribs then lowered the benchmark further on a 1m 10.763s, before Mercedes made their move to go P1 with Russell (1m 10.702s) and P3 with Hamilton – the top-five drivers covered by just over two-and-a-half tenths of a second.
MUST-SEE: Join Norris for a lap of Zandvoort with F1’s spectacular gyro cam
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was ‘best of the rest’ in sixth, 0.371s away from Verstappen, followed by the RB of Yuki Tsunoda and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen, who enjoyed a much more productive session than sidelined team mate Hulkenberg.
Charles Leclerc wound up ninth, as the sole Ferrari driver for most of the session due to Carlos Sainz hitting gearbox trouble, while the latter’s future team mate at Williams, Alex Albon, completed the top-10 positions over the other Aston of Lance Stroll.
Aiming to get his season back on track after a challenging run, Perez trailed team mate Verstappen by six-tenths in 12th, followed by the other RB of Daniel Ricciardo and the lead Alpine of Pierre Gasly, whose team mate for 2025 has now been confirmed as Jack Doohan.
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