Lewis Hamilton leads as Dutch Grand Prix first practice was delayed by Vettel car problem

Lewis Hamilton led title rival Max Verstappen in a strangely truncated first practice session at the Dutch Grand Prix.

The car was still under power, delaying its recovery from the pits.

The race resumed with just six minutes to go and Hamilton edged Verstappen by 0.097 seconds.

The Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished fourth and fifth, ahead of the Alpine of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon, Antonio Giovinazzi of Alfa Romeo, Lance Stroll of Aston Martin and Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly.

McLaren’s Lando Norris finished 11th and Williams driver George Russell 15th.

This weekend marks the first time that F1 cars have raced at the historic Zandvoort track since 1985, and the difficult track has been the subject of much anticipation among the drivers.

But they didn’t have as much experience with the single layout – with two steeply angled corners – as they would have liked.

After the first few runs, little more than sighters for riders who have never experienced Zandvoort before or have done so several years ago, Norris was the fastest of Verstappen, Bottas and Hamilton.

But then Vettel came to a stop at the exit of the pit lane, having left a trail of oil behind his car.

What followed was what many will see as a bizarre sequence of events, the full explanation of which is not yet available.

Vettel grabbed a marshals fire extinguisher and extinguished the small fire in the engine compartment himself, presumably because he could see that the car was still on and could not be touched.

But after the fire was extinguished, it took several minutes before a commissioner arrived at the scene dressed in insulating clothing and rubber sheeting to cover the car.

Eventually, Aston Martin engineers arrived and the car was pulled out, but one will wonder why it took so long.

The session resumed with just six minutes remaining, leading to an eventful period on the narrow, winding track.

Heavy traffic led to an incident in which Ocon appeared to be pushing Norris onto the grass.

But in the end, everyone got away with it.

The biggest loser outside of Vettel was Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, who spun on his first lap while doing aero calibration work, and never returned to the track.