Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri crashed out of second practice for the Dutch Grand Prix in separate but related incidents.
Piastri found the wall at the banked Turn 3 little more than 10 minutes into the session, Ricciardo having his own shunt as he avoided the stricken McLaren.
Both were scratchings from the session, Lando Norris rubbing salt into the wound for his McLaren team-mate by going fastest.
Max Verstappen could do no better than second-best on his qualifying run midway through the session, Norris fastest on merit.
Following a power unit issue in Free Practice 1, Lance Stroll was on track early with the team reporting that all was looking good.
It was a busy start with all 20 drivers circulating inside the opening five minutes.
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Again, the hard and medium compound tyres were the order of the day, with a mixture of both in use up and down the field.
Mercedes and Red Bull had fitted mediums, propelling George Russell to the top of the timesheets with a 1:13.358s before that was bettered by Sergio Perez by 1:12.750s.
A strong early lap from Daniel Ricciardo saw the Scuderia AlphaTauri driver split the pair with a 1:13.326s on a set of hard compound tyres.
With so many cars on track, finding space was difficult as Nico Hulkenberg baulked a fiery lap from Verstappen.
The Dutchman found his path blocked into the penultimate corner, though Hulkenberg had Lando Norris ahead of him, the McLaren driver in turn tucked up behind another car ahead.
Verstappen aborted his lap with officials noting the impeding incident.
A second effort from the championship leader soon after netted a completed lap, a 1:12.449s to establish Red Bull first and second.
The red flag was called for after 11 minutes when Piastri and Ricciardo stopped at Turn 3.
Piastri had front-right suspension damage, his car pointing perpendicular to the direction of travel around the banked left-hander.
The McLaren driver had lost control initially, spinning and parking with his nose facing the barrier.
Committed as he arrived soon after, Ricciardo had nowhere to go and had his own accident in avoidance soon after.
Piastri sat fifth fastest at the time, two places better than Ricciardo, their bests a 1:12.901s and 1:13.096s respectively – both on hard tyres.
Both cars were craned off the track and deposited on the inside of the circuit, meaning neither driver would take any further part in the session.
After a 14-minute interruption, there was a stampede out of the lane as teams looked to get their qualifying simulation runs in the bag.
Only Verstappen remained in the garage while Ferrari sent Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz out on medium rubber.
The timing screens changed rapidly as a result with the track improving seemingly with each successive car over the line.
Following the flurry, it left Norris fastest, 0.3s quicker than Lewis Hamilton, with Pierre Gasly third.
However, as he circulated back into the lane, Verstappen was on track and winding up for a fast lap.
It was an aggressive lap, the Red Bull darting about on power out of Turn 3, slowing his run through the sand dunes up to Turn 7.
The net result was only second fastest, his 1:11.568s leaving him 0.2s down on Norris’ McLaren.
A second lap brought with it a better time, though no change in position as he remained second by 0.023s.
Verstappen’s lap signalled the end of the qualifying simulations as teams switched focus back to long-run pace.
That saw higher fuel on used tyres, or slower compound rubber, effectively confirming the order in terms of lap time.
Norris therefore ended the session fastest over Verstappen with Alex Albon third for Williams.
Rounding out the top 10 were Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, Perez, Stroll, Valtteri Bottas, and Fernando Alonso.
Having not recorded a qualifying simulation, Piastri and Ricciardo propped up the timing sheets.
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