George Russell said he expected “a close battle” between Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen after setting the pace in Friday practice at the Dutch Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver was 0.061secs quicker than McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. The Briton’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton was third, 0.111secs off Russell, and the second McLaren of Lando Norris fourth.

Verstappen – fifth fastest, 0.284 seconds off the pace – said Red Bull were “a bit too slow on the short run, a bit too slow on the long runs – a bit of work to do.

“At the moment, no clear answer as to how to improve that specifically and we will look into things.”

Russell said: “Really difficult out there because it was so windy. But the car was performing really well. It looks to be quite a close battle with the McLarens and Max.”

Verstappen has won all three of the editions of his home race since the seaside Zandvoort circuit returned to the calendar in 2021.

But this season he has not won since the Spanish Grand Prix in mid-June, six races ago, as both McLaren and Mercedes have improved their form.

Red Bull have introduced an upgrade to their car for this weekend and spent Friday with the cars of Verstappen and team-mate Perez in different specifications to try to learn as much as possible.

Verstappen said: “It is where we have been the last few races. It is not a surprise but we will try to find a bit more performance for Sunday.”

Perez was down in 11th, saying a mistake in Turn 12 had cost him about 0.2secs.

McLaren also have an upgrade on their car, their first performance step since the new parts introduced at the Miami race in May transformed the car into a front-runner.

The Briton is 78 points behind Verstappen with 10 races to go and still believes he can overhaul the Red Bull driver in the championship.

Norris said: “Mercedes look a bit quicker but it is close. I don’t think there is a quickest. It depends on different factors.

“We have been in good form since Miami but not brought any updates since Miami. This weekend’s our first time trying to make a bit more progress with the car.

“(I’m) optimistic, but have no idea whether it’s working or not how it’s performing at the minute.

“Today was a reasonable day and we are there or thereabouts. A little bit more to find tonight hopefully and we can challenge the Mercedes.”

Norris looked impressive on the race-simulation runs at the end of the session, comfortably quicker than the other drivers who also focused on the medium tyre, Hamilton, Verstappen and Leclerc.

On the soft tyre, Verstappen and Norris lapped at about the same pace.

Hamilton said: “It was OK today. A big, big difference compared to last year so the car is feeling more alive and we’re right up there at the front.

“I didn’t get the most out of it (on the single lap), there is still performance, left. I just have to work on set-up. I don’t know if I looked particularly quick (on the long run) but the set-up I had for a single lap was hindering the long run.”

Behind Verstappen, Fernando Alonso was sixth fastest, ahead of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Williams’ Alex Albon.

After the first session started in wet conditions before drying, the second was held in sunny weather, although the strong, blustery wind continued, leading to a number of drivers to run wide at the first corner, because of a strong tailwind down the pit straight.

Strong winds on this scale can be very disruptive to F1 cars, interfering with their sensitive aerodynamics and giving drivers an unexpected lack of grip at critical times when cornering on the limit.

But despite the testing conditions, there was only one crash – Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg spinning on entry to Tarzan, skidding across the gravel trap and ending up in the barriers to bring out the red flag for a few minutes.

In the first session, Norris was 0.201 seconds faster than Verstappen, with Hamilton third fastest, his fastest lap time affected by traffic.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, on medium-compound tyres rather than the soft used by those ahead of him, was fourth. The Spaniard’s running in the second session was curtailed by a gearbox problem after just seven laps.