2026 F1 Academy Dutch GP Free Practice got the second half of the season underway at Zandvoort on Friday morning. Round 4 marks the championship’s return after the summer break, with all drivers eager to hit the ground running.
Heading into the weekend, Alisha Palmowski leads the Drivers’ Standings on 108 points. Emma Felbermayr sits 30 points behind in second on 78, with Nina Gademan third on 50. With three rounds left to come, the title fight remains very much alive.
Early running during 2026 F1 Academy Dutch GP Free Practice
The 40-minute session began in challenging conditions, with a damp track and changing winds making tyre warm-up difficult. Air and track temperatures were 18 and 26 degrees, respectively.
With F1 having already run a practice session earlier in the morning, the track was in better condition than in previous years, when F1 Academy had been the first series on track. Several drivers elected to wait in the pit lane at the start, allowing the track to rubber in before heading out.
Ella Lloyd was the early pacesetter, posting a 1:40.879 to lead the timesheets with 30 minutes remaining. Felbermayr then improved to a 1:39.622 with around 26 minutes left, going a tenth clear of her Rodin Motorsport teammate at the top of the order. Larsen then moved to the top of the F1 Academy Dutch GP Free Practice timesheets by nearly five tenths, having found an impressive rhythm around the circuit.
Dobson brings out a red flag midway through the session
A red flag brought the F1 Academy Dutch GP Free Practice session to a halt after Ava Dobson made contact with the barrier at Turn 9. The Hitech driver ran wide through the preceding corner. The wet grass caught the car and carried it towards the wall. Dobson climbed out unharmed, but her session was over.
Championship leader Palmowski had yet to set a lap time when the red flag was shown. She had chosen to wait in the pits for the track to rubber in. With rain then beginning to fall heavily across the circuit, that decision was starting to look costly.
Larsen led the timesheets at the point of the stoppage, having been the first driver to break into the 1:38s. She held a gap of nearly five tenths to the rest of the field. Palmowski, yet to set a time, faced the prospect of heading out in deteriorating conditions when the session resumed.
Gademan goes fastest as the session is halted by a second red flag
The session resumed with around ten minutes remaining. Conditions remained tricky, with drivers on slick tyres as the rain continued to fall lightly. Ferreira moved to the top of the timesheets with a 1:38.840, with the track drying quickly as temperatures held.
Palmowski finally headed out and began building up her pace, but with Dutch GP Free Practice running short on time she had little time to produce a representative lap. Robertson jumped to second, while Kosterman moved into a position that would have given her reverse grid race pole had it stood.
Gademan then delivered the lap of the session. The home crowd favourite went fastest in the first sector and held on through the middle and final sectors to post a 1:38.729, going to the top of the timesheets by a tenth with around four and a half minutes remaining.
A second red flag then brought Free Practice at the 2026 F1 Academy Dutch GP to an end. Jacquet lost control on the exit of the high-speed Turn 7, spun across the track, and came to a stop. Billard reacted quickly to avoid contact. The session did not restart. Gademan finished top of the timesheets, with Ferreira second and Larsen third. Palmowski ended the session tenth, having never produced a flying lap.
