{"id":37156,"date":"2025-08-29T11:35:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=37156"},"modified":"2025-08-29T11:35:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:35:05","slug":"norris-fastest-alonso-second-as-aston-excel-in-friday-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/29\/norris-fastest-alonso-second-as-aston-excel-in-friday-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Norris fastest, Alonso second as Aston excel in Friday Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris<\/a> topped the timing sheets in Friday Practice, but it was Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin who emerged as the biggest surprise in today’s running.<\/p>\n

Alonso was less than a tenth behind Norris in FP2, showing competitive pace in both short and long runs.<\/p>\n

Piastri was just behind the Spaniard, at a circuit where he was significantly slower than his teammate in 2024.<\/p>\n

The top three were comfortably ahead of the rest of the field, setting a strong benchmark in an FP2 plagued with incidents.<\/p>\n

As ever, the question is how this initial pace will translate on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fernando Alonso in Zandvoort, Netherlands. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

McLaren’s advantage is clear, Aston Martin are dark horses<\/h2>\n

In typical fashion, it was McLaren that set the pace<\/a> in Friday Practice.<\/p>\n

The MCL39 flexed its muscles at the Zandvoort circuit, irrespective of the looming threat of rain and low grip.<\/p>\n

Norris was the faster of the papaya duo, enjoying a three-tenth buffer over his teammate in FP1.<\/p>\n

This advantage was cut to just 0.089 in Second Practice, a reminder of the fine margins that have separated these drivers all season.<\/p>\n

However, the McLaren duo were not without company at the top of the field.<\/p>\n

Alonso was 4th in FP1 and 2nd in FP2, two sessions that will be very encouraging for Aston Martin.<\/p>\n

His teammate Lance Stroll also looked competitive, going third fastest overall in Practice 1 before crashing out early in the second session of the day.<\/p>\n

Regardless, it seems clear that Zandvoort’s characteristics are well-suited to the AMR25.<\/p>\n

Much like in Hungary, when Alonso and Stroll claimed the team’s best result of 2025, the British team were competitive.<\/p>\n

Crucially, this weekend is only Aston’s second time with the upgrade package they introduced just before the summer break.<\/p>\n

Assuming they have further optimised their latest updates, they can aim for strong points this weekend.<\/p>\n

Further behind, the other top teams were between 4-9 tenths away from McLaren.<\/p>\n

George Russell’s Mercedes<\/a> was closest to the top three, whilst Red Bull and Ferrari were relatively evenly matched – occupying 5th to 9th place in Practice 2.<\/p>\n

Red Bull had a slight edge over Ferrari, with Tsunoda’s P7 an encouraging result<\/a> as he works to rebuild his campaign.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Lando Norris in Zandvoort, Netherlands. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A less potent midfield<\/h4>\n

Generally speaking, at least one of Red Bull, Mercedes or Ferrari have experienced some significant hurdles in recent months.<\/p>\n

This has given openings for the likes of VCARB, Sauber and Williams<\/a> to become a nuisance for the top teams.<\/p>\n

The Hungarian GP, where Verstappen finished 9th, Antonelli 10th and Hamilton 12th, is a good case study in this respect.<\/p>\n

So far in Zandvoort, however, the midfield pack have been a few steps behind.<\/p>\n

With the exception of Aston Martin<\/a>, nobody emerges as a major threat to the top four in Friday’s Practice sessions.<\/p>\n

Even in qualifying simulations, where the margins have been extremely tight in 2025, there was a notable gap.<\/p>\n

Outside of Aston, Zandvoort does not particularly play to the strength of any midfield teams.<\/p>\n

This makes the fight for the lower points positions difficult to predict, especially given the volume of mistakes from today’s sessions.<\/p>\n

Main photo: Zak Mauger\/LAT Images (Aston Martin media gallery)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris topped the timing sheets in Friday Practice, but it was Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin who emerged as the biggest surprise in today’s running. Alonso was less than a tenth behind Norris in FP2, showing competitive pace in both short and long runs. Piastri was just behind the Spaniard, at a circuit where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":37158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[1342,2452,71,444],"class_list":["post-37156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-dutch-gp","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-lando-norris"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37160,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37156\/revisions\/37160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}