Aston Martin’s start to the Dutch Grand Prix weekend was one part great, one part terrible.
While Fernando Alonso put his AMR25 second fastest, less than a tenth of a second off the fastest time of the day, Lance Stroll put his car in the barrier at Hugenholzbocht.
Aston Martin took their biggest points haul of the season so far at the last race in Hungary and look set for another strong weekend at Zandvoort. But one other team has made an even bigger step forwards compared to their performance last year.
Teams’ 2024 performance in context
Sauber were in poor shape at this race 12 months ago. Drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu originally qualified on the back row of the grid (they subsequently moved three places forward due to penalties for other drivers).
Their drivers lapped Zandvoort more than 1% further from the pace than any other team. At the other end of the field, this was one of McLaren’s strongest venues last year. Lando Norris took pole position by three tenths of a second, a lap time advantage of more than 0.5% compared to closest rival Max Verstappen:
Teams’ progress vs 2024
Sauber have made significant progress following an upgrade earlier this year and arrived at Zandvoort having scored points in the last six consecutive rounds. While Aston Martin caught the eye in second practice, splitting the McLaren drivers, Sauber have improved their lap time by even more year-on-year. Haas is the only other team which has already lapped quicker at Zandvoort than it managed 12 months ago.
Full Friday practice times
However the full picture of the teams’ performance is yet to emerge, partly because the second practice session was disrupted by red flags and a Virtual Safety Car period triggered by Isack Hadjar’s stoppage. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Williams’s Carlos Sainz Jnr were among those who missed the chance to set better lap times.
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