Dutch Grand Prix weather: Will the qualifying session be affected by rain?

The Dutch Grand Prix weekend is halfway through after a long summer break for the Formula 1 drivers and now that the racing action is back at Max Verstappen's home circuit, there is certainly some assertion of the weather conditions on the track.

The weekend started out with clear skies over the Circuit Zandvoort and the first two practice sessions on Friday were dry with drivers running all the slick compounds. There was a warning that FP3, which was earlier today, might be affected by rain, which it was.

The practice session was soaked in rain and there was a mix between the wet and the intermediate tyres which the drivers chose from, setting rather confusing laptimes as it was hard to set a benchmark under such changing conditions at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Zhou Guanyu walking out after beaching his Alfa Romeo on the gravel during Dutch Grand Prix FP3 (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

The wet condition was not friendly to the drivers as multiple cars kept locking their wheels and going wide into corners. The red flag stopped the session thrice within a single hour, but the sky opened up towards the end of the session. There was a significant gap between the laptimes that were set earlier in the session and the ones set by the end because of the track evolution.

---

Showers expected during qualifying at the Dutch Grand Prix

The track condition during the third practice session gave a pretext for the conditions that will be prevalent during the qualifying session later today. So far, the weather prediction hasn't been so wrong and it is expected that the weather will remain likely the same during the qualifying session as well.

Teams are expected to run their wet setups during qualifying as well. Even though the skies were much clearer by the end of the third practice session, there could be showers that would wet the track again.

Temperature - 20°C

Wind speed - 22 / 29 km/h (towards SW)

Chances of rain - 1.1mm to 4.4mm

There could be patches of rain during the session, which could increase the competition amongst the drivers as track evolution will play a major role (as it did during the British Grand Prix weekend).

Max Verstappen has looked quick so far in the sessions and the home hero of the Dutch Grand Prix is expected to bring his car to the pole. Meanwhile, Mercedes and McLaren have been looking in good shape as well.