Mercedes set the pace in the first free practice session of the Dutch Grand Prix on Friday while Ferrari went 1-2 in the second practice session at Zandvoort, Netherlands, 20 miles outside of Amsterdam.

"We picked up the pace a little in FP2, but we were not quite there with the car balance on my side," said Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

"We were all very close apart from [Verstappen] and [Perez] but I don't think they had a clean day so it will be interesting," added Leclerc.

Points leader Red Bull's Max Verstappen had transmission issues early in FP1 and was just 8th quickest in FP2. Verstappen's teammate, Sergio Perez, was 12th quickest in FP2.

McLaren's Lando Norris was fourth quickest in FP2 sandwiched between the Silver Arrows of Lewis Hamilton (3rd) and George Russell (5th)

"Neither driver has the balance where they want it yet and both felt the car was a little easier to drive in the morning," said Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes Engineering Director. "In the afternoon, we were understeering in some places and lacking stability in others. Not major issues but ones we are going to need to put right overnight if we plan on giving Red Bull and Ferrari any trouble tomorrow."

Aston Martin's Lance Stroll was sixth quickest in FP2. BWT Alpine's Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were 7th and 9th quickest, respectively in FP2 on Friday.

"Today was a trouble-free day of practice and we completed everything we intended to do with both cars,' said BWT Alpine's Technical Director, Matt Harman. "We've brought a couple of small upgrades here, which performed in line with our pre-race simulations, and that's brought a bit of extra performance. It's fantastic that we continue to bring upgrades to every race and there's more to come at the next couple of races as well."

McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top ten quickest times in FP2.

*********************
FP2 
*********************


Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:12.345	131.694 mph
2	Sainz		Ferrari		1:12.349	0.004
3	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:12.417	0.072
4	Norris		McLaren		1:12.448	0.103
5	Russell		Mercedes	1:12.655	0.310
6	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:12.746	0.401
7	Alonso		Alpine		1:12.848	0.503
8	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:13.042	0.697
9	Ocon		Alpine		1:13.305	0.960
10	Ricciardo	McLaren		1:13.362	1.017
11	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:13.419	1.074
12	Perez		Red Bull	1:13.493	1.148
13	Schumacher	Haas		1:13.604	1.259
14	Vettel		Aston Martin	1:13.611	1.266
15	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:13.624	1.279
16	Gasly		AlphaTauri	1:13.666	1.321
17	Albon		Williams	1:13.837	1.492
18	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:14.167	1.822
19	Magnussen	Haas		1:14.282	1.937
20	Latifi		Williams	1:14.797	2.452



*********************
FP1 
*********************


Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Russell		Mercedes	1:12.455	131.494 mph
2	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:12.695	0.240
3	Sainz		Ferrari		1:12.845	0.390
4	Norris		McLaren		1:12.929	0.474
5	Ricciardo	McLaren		1:13.077	0.622
6	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:13.127	0.672
7	Perez		Red Bull	1:13.416	0.961
8	Alonso		Alpine		1:13.633	1.178
9	Ocon		Alpine		1:13.963	1.508
10	Albon		Williams	1:14.063	1.608
11	Schumacher	Haas		1:14.163	1.708
12	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:14.257	1.802
13	Magnussen	Haas		1:14.405	1.950
14	Gasly		AlphaTauri	1:14.474	2.019
15	Vettel		Aston Martin	1:14.500	2.045
16	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:14.534	2.079
17	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:14.630	2.175
18	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:14.695	2.240
19	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:14.714	2.259
20	Latifi		Williams	1:15.122	2.667