AlphaTauri driver Daniel Ricciardo will miss the Dutch Grand Prix after breaking his hand in a crash during Friday practice at Zandvoort.
The Australian will be replaced by Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson.
Alpha Tauri said Ricciardo fractured the metatarsal bone in his left hand. No information was given on how long he might be out of the car.
Ricciardo lost control at Hoogenholz corner while trying to avoid crashing Oscar Piastri’s McLaren.
His injury means Lawson, who played two training matches last season, will make his Formula 1 debut in difficult conditions.
The 21-year-old New Zealander, who is racing in the Japanese Super Formula series this season, has not driven the 2023 Alpha Tauri car and will have to qualify on Saturday afternoon after just one hour of running in the final practice session, which starts at 11:30. local time (10:30 GMT).
Ricciardo returned to Formula One with just two races to go, replacing AlphaTauri as replacement for Dutchman Nyck de Vries, who missed 10 races of his debut season as a result of disappointing performances.
Ricciardo himself was dropped from McLaren at the end of last season, a year before his contract was due to expire, after he struggled to keep up with team mate Lando Norris.
It looks almost certain that the Australian, who has won eight Grands Prix, will miss next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix and possibly more races after that.
However, Lance Stroll raced for Aston Martin with both broken wrists at the start of the season, so an early return for Ricciardo cannot be ruled out.
He lost control at the Hugenholz corner when he saw Piastri’s McLaren crashed too late. The 21-year-old had lost control of himself moments earlier and his car had spun down the track.
What else happened at the session?
Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris led Red Bull driver Max Verstappen in Friday’s practice. The Briton clocked 0.023 seconds quicker than the championship leader, who had a chaotic cycle on one fast lap and a mistake on the next.
Williams impressed Alex Albon by setting the third fastest time, outperforming Lewis Hamilton’s updated Mercedes.
“The Red Bull team are a bit quick, as always, so I don’t necessarily expect we’ll be able to beat them easily, but I think we’ll get close,” Hamilton said after the session.
Ferrari had been struggling all day and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso didn’t produce a representative time.
The fastest Ferrari was Charles Leclerc in 11th, 0.585 seconds off the pace, while teammate Carlos Sainz was 16th.
The Spaniard missed the first session while Ferrari test driver Robert Schwarzman got a corner in the car, then had two crashes in the second – he miscalculated going into Turn 11, skidded onto the gravel on a fast lap and then ran wide at Turn 11. Penultimate corner of his racing career .
Alonso, who was the second-quickest Aston Martin in the morning session, was only 10th in the afternoon for one lap.
Norris’ pace at McLaren highlighted the team’s progress with the team’s promotion in Austria at the start of last month, where the team became the second fastest in qualifying on average.
However, even if McLaren can challenge Verstappen in qualifying, it would be unwise to expect a threat to the domestic champion in the race. Verstappen was comfortably faster over long distances – 0.2 seconds behind Norris and 0.5 seconds behind Leclerc compared to their running on the soft tyre.
“We have a few things we want to improve, but even in the long run the car handled well. So overall I think it was a good day,” said Verstappen.
He was heard complaining about ‘strange’ behavior in the mid-speed corners during the session, but explained afterwards: “In some corners I wasn’t happy with the balance, so it’s all about trying to work that out a bit more.
“I still feel good. The car has a lot of potential to have a good day tomorrow but we just have to improve a few things and then I’m very confident we can be on top.”