Charles Leclerc led a surprise Ferrari 1-2 as Lewis Hamilton his trouble in second practice at the Dutch Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion would pull over just 10 minutes into the session, reporting a loss of power from his Mercedes to the initial delight of the Dutch fans.
As a result, Hamilton missed out on the important soft tyre and race simulations, putting him at a disadvantage to his rivals heading into Saturday.
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) September 3, 2021
He wouldn’t be the only man to cause a red flag though, with Nikita Mazepin spinning into the gravel trap at the Audi chicane as the qualifying-style runs began.
Before the Haas driver’s error, Esteban Ocon surprised by going fastest for Alpine ahead of Valtteri Bottas on the soft tyre.
Max Verstappen too was surprisingly off the pace, finishing behind the Mercedes in fifth.
Instead, it would be the two Ferraris who had the pace to beat Ocon, with Carlos Sainz and then Leclerc going fastest with a 1m10.902s.
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Behind the leading five, Fernando Alonso backed up Alpine’s solid pace in sixth, ahead of Pierre Gasly in seventh.
Lando Norris was eighth was McLaren had a subdued day, while Antonio Giovinazzi managed his second top 10 of the day in P9 for Alfa Romeo.
After his morning power unit problems, Sebastian Vettel returned to the track and rounded out the top 10 for Aston Martin in Practice 2.
Further down, Hamilton was still P11 despite only completing one timed lap, even ahead of Sergio Perez who struggled in P12 for Red Bull.
Daniel Ricciardo was a lowly 15th, while Mick Schumacher was a solid 17th in the Haas.
Williams had a tricky session with Nicholas Latifi 18th and George Russell bringing up the field in 20th.
While the pecking order looks very jumbled over a single lap, Verstappen and Red Bull were comfortably faster than anyone in the race simulation to conclude the session.
An intriguing weekend awaits by the beach at Zandvoort.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
