Lance Stroll and Alex Albon crashed out in second practice to continue an incident-filled opening day to the Dutch Grand Prix weekend which saw Lando Norris narrowly outpace Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso at the top of the timesheet.

Four weeks after F1 was last on track in Hungary, the sport's return to the track produced one of the most chaotic Fridays of the session so far as gusty winds created tricky conditions at an undulating Zandvoort circuit which sits on the banks of the North Sea coast.

Norris stayed at the top of the timesheet in the day's second session thanks to a best lap of 1:09.890 although this time McLaren were denied a one-two by the impressive Alonso, the Aston Martin driver finishing just 0.087s behind the Briton and 0.002s ahead of title leader Oscar Piastri.

Outpaced by title rival Norris on day one, Piastri will head to the stewards after the session following a pit-lane incident that saw him nearly collide with Mercedes' George Russell.

That came as drivers returned to the pit lane for the session's second red flag after Albon had beached his Williams in the Turn One gravel trap after he had run through the gravel and nudged the barrier.

Earlier, Lance Stroll had crashed more heavily entering the banked Turn Three, doing major damage to his Aston Martin in the only apparent downside to the team's otherwise impressive day.

Russell finished fourth fastest ahead of home favourite Max Verstappen, who was fifth in the Red Bull.

Lewis Hamilton was the lead Ferrari in sixth despite a difficult day which saw the seven-time champion spin in each of the two sessions.

He nonetheless finished a tenth quicker than eighth-placed Charles Leclerc, although Ferrari were a whopping 0.9s off the pace.

Yuki Tsunoda was seventh in the second Red Bull, within 0.4s of Verstappen, with Franco Colapinto a promising ninth for Alpine ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg.

Saturday August 30
9.20am: F1 Academy Qualifying
10.05am: Dutch Grand Prix Practice Three (session starts at 10:30am)*
1pm: Dutch Grand Prix Qualifying build-up
2pm: DUTCH GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING
4pm: F1 Academy Race 1

Sunday August 31
9.35am: F1 Academy Race 2
10.50am: Porsche Supercup Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Dutch GP build-up
2pm: The DUTCH GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: Dutch GP reaction

*also on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 returns after the summer break with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime