Hamilton, who goes into the fir🍌st grand prix held in the Netherlands since 1985🌃 holding a three-point championship advantage over Verstappen, ended a heavily-disrupted FP1 session 0.097s faster than the Red Bull driver.

Carlos Sainz was a tenth off Hamilton’s benchmark as he headed Ferrari teammate Charles Le🍬clerc in third, while Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was 0.238s off the pace.

Opening practice was suspended for 37 minutes following a sto♓ppꦿage for Sebastian Vettel, who reported an “engine failure” as he headed down the main straight.

Having pulled to the side of the track at pit exit, Vettel grabbed a fire extinguisher to use durin🍸g an animated𓆉 discussion with marshals.

The session was red-flagged for more than half an hour with Vettel’s Aston Martin not being electrically safe to be recovered, indicaౠte♛d by the flashing green ERS light.

Vettel had earlier pitted after a single lap with a💃🔯n apparent MGU-K problem.

The delay caused significanꦺt track running to be lost, causing a headache for the drivers as they look to get up to speed around an unfamilia💯r circuit.

The session resumed with just six minutes left on the clock and l♑ed to some frantic action as the drivers returned to the circuit on soft tyres for a busy end to FP1.

Alpine ꦜpa🔯ir Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon finished sixth and seventh, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, with Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and AlphaTauri racer Pierre Gasly completing the top-10.

Vettel was left 19th in the FP1 timesheets, ahead of 🍰only Yuki Tsunoda, who spun his AlphaTauri during his first outlap of the session.

Full opening practice results for the 2021 F1 Dutch Grand Prix.