F1 News: Superior McLarens bury everyone in Dutch GP Practice 3

Chief Designer Rob Marshall keeps making the McLaren F1 car faster as the gap widened to the rest of the field in Practice 3 for the 2025 Dutch GP at Zandvoort.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Lando Norris, who topped Practice 1 and Practice 2, turned a lap of 1m08.972s to lead Practice 3 by 0.242s over McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

The rest of the laggards were so far adrift they may as well go home now.

George Russell was 3rd for Mercedes, 0.886s behind the McLaren of Norris.

Carlos Sainz Jr. turned a great lap for Williams to finish 4th, 0.941s behind the McLaren.

Local hero Max Verstappen rounded out the top-5 in the Red Bull RB21 dog, 0.953s behind the McLaren and out to lunch.

Charles Leclerc’s flyer a second slower than the McLaren in sixth, the Monegasque visibly struggling for grip aboard the Ferrari, followed by Alex Albon and Lance Stroll, who recovered from his FP2 crash in Turn 3.

Like Ferrari stablemate Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton appeared to struggle for grip as he clocked the 14th-fastest time.

The weather remains dry – for now – so we could get a fully flat out Qualifying, and if we do, the outright track record could go today.

Piastri has not had a pole since Spain, and he is going to have to put in a perfect lap later if he wants one here – as right now, Norris is the man to beat.

2025 Dutch GP Practice 3 Results