The summer break is over: Formula 1 is back!
At the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on Friday, F1 kicked off the first race weekend after the summer shutdown.
Dramatic changes in the weather meant by the time FP2 started the track was completely dry, which allowed Lewis and George to start the session on the Medium tyre compound in the sunshine.
However, the strong gusts of wind were still present in the afternoon and George went off the track once on his first run in Turn 1. There was a strong tailwind at that point. Even in the dry, the conditions remained difficult.
This became apparent about 18 minutes into FP2 when Nico Hülkenberg crashed his Haas at Turn 1, bringing out a red flag. However, the session was resumed shortly afterwards.
Lewis reported that the balance of his car generally felt good while George noted that he wasn't able to get everything out of the car because of a flat spot he suffered at Turn 1.
After the first runs on the Medium tyres, the Mercedes duo began work on the Soft tyres, followed by race preparations with long runs.
After the flat spot, George completed the long run on the Soft tyre set, while Lewis used the Medium tyre from the start of the session.
George finished the session fastest with a time of 1:10.702, with Lewis just a tenth behind in P3.
As usual, the times were very close on the short track at Zandvoort. The top five were within three tenths of a second of each other and all the drivers up to P14 were within a second of each other.