Formula 1 returns to Zandvoort for round 12 of the 2026 season, and the opening practice session delivered a tantalising battle at the front.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Kimi Antonelli set the pace in FP1, the Mercedes driver narrowly edging out McLaren’s Lando Norris to finish top of the timesheets.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
With Max Verstappen racing on home soil, the Dutch fans will be hoping their four-time world champion can join the fight as attention now turns to sprint qualifying.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The short, sharp session will determine the grid for Saturday’s sprint race, adding an extra layer of intensity to proceedings.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Can Antonelli maintain his advantage, or will Norris and Verstappen have something to say about it?\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Below, you can easily switch between the live timing and the live blog. The live timing updates automatically throughout sprint qualifying, showing the current classification.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Our live blog delivers every key moment as it happens at Zandvoort, ensuring you are always up to date with the action on track.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 returns to Zandvoort for round 12 of the 2026 season, and the opening practice session delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3518,3521,3519,3522,3520,3517,3515,42,3513,3516,3514,43,3512,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-576043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-headlines","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motorsport","tag-news","tag-racing","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}