TYRES: What did we learn about the tyres on Day 1 at Zandvoort?

McLaren’s Lando Norris set the benchmark in both Friday’s practice sessions, but Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso kept the Briton honest with an unexpectedly strong performance on the opening day at the Dutch Grand Prix. F1Technical’s senior writer Balazs Szabo explains what we learned from the opening day at Zandvoort.

Both practice sessions on this first day in Zandvoort featured stoppages, as several cars went off track, some crashing into the barriers.

Focussing on lap times, Lando Norris was the clear leader, fastest in both sessions, in FP1 with a 1’10”278 and in FP2 with a 1’09”890. In the second hour, both the Englishman and his team-mate Oscar Piastri (1’09’’979), got under the 1’10” barrier, but splitting the two McLarens was the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso who posted a best time of 1’09”977.

The Italian tyre supplier has brought a tyre selection to Zandvoort which is a step softer than what teams had had available last year.

Reflecting on the first day of competitive action at Zandvoort, Pirelli’s chief engineer Simone Berra noted that all three compounds proved viable, and the first signs indicate that all of them could come into play on Sunday.

“Quite an interesting day, with plenty of action as the teams strived to make the most of the time available, compromised by several interruptions across the two hours of free practice.

“The most significant indication from today is that all three compounds seem capable of playing their part in the race. The Hard proved to be the most durable with the least level of abrasion but, with temperatures like those we saw today this could be slightly penalising in terms of warm-up and performance.

“The Medium offers the best balance between performance and degradation, but the Soft also seemed competitive over a long run on some cars. The C4 saw drivers make a bigger step in terms of performance compared to the C3 than we had expected, without as mentioned earlier, suffering too much over longer runs.”

Interestingly, tyre evolution was very different on practice day at Zandvoort. While tracks normally improve gradually throughout a race weekend, the sand blown in by the wind means that the track evolution is huge in the early stages of eacjh session, but the grip level decresses again between session due to the sand.

“The track got significantly quicker during the two sessions as the racing line gradually got cleaner, removing the sand blown in on the wind. Less significant was the improvement from one session to the next, as only one support series was on track in between them.

“In terms of tyre use, it’s interesting to see how the teams were split almost equally between those choosing to have two Mediums and one Hard per driver for the rest of the weekend and those who favoured the C3 at the expense of the C4. It means the third free practice session should be particularly interesting.

“In terms of strategy, possibly even more so than previously thought, the choice between one and two stops is wide open, especially now that the Soft is a viable option,” concluded Berra.