Max Verstappen expresses his concern towards Lance Stroll after Aston Martin star’s nasty crash in the Dutch GP

Max Verstappen expressed his concern towards Lance Stroll following his crash during the second practice session of the Dutch Grand Prix. The Canadian driver suffered a heavy shunt shortly after the start of the afternoon session.

Stroll, who was third quickest during the first practice session, was aiming to replicate such a feat during the second practice session when he suffered a lock-up and lost the car heading into turn three. The Aston Martin driver had a huge crash into the barriers of the banked corner, damaging the entirety of the right side of his car.

Max Verstappen, who was the driver behind the 26-year-old, quickly took to his radio to inquire about the safety of Stroll. In a conversation with his race engineer, Gian Piero Lambiase, Verstappen asked:

“Is he okay with his hands? I saw like how he hit the wall.”

Lambiase responding stated:

“Reports are that he is okay, Max.”

The concerns from Max Verstappen appeared to be understandable, especially considering recent history about crashes in that corner. During the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, his former teammate Daniel Ricciardo suffered a similar high-impact crash at the same corner of the Zaandvoort circuit. Sadly for Riccairdo, he would suffer a broken arm through the process, which ruled him out for the next four race weekends.

Max Verstappen reacts after his FP2 session

While the session continued without Lance Stroll, Max Verstappen largely endured a difficult outing in front of his home crowd. The four-time world champion could only muster a fifth-place finish, well off the McLarens through the session.

Sharing his reaction with the media following the conclusion of the first day of the race weekend, Verstappen admitted to still struggling with the same things that the Red Bull car has had to deal with for much of the season. The Dutch driver also stressed how the team will have a look into the issue overnight ahead of the final practice session and qualifying.

“Today wasn't great, and we were still struggling with the same things that we have had issues with before. We tried a lot of things with the car, but it didn’t seem to change anything with the problems that we had. We will look overnight to see if we can find a bit more, but I am not going to expect a massive turnaround.

The layout of the track doesn’t suit the problems that we have with the car, and it has been quite tricky today, especially in the middle sector there are a lot of long corners. It will be difficult to be fighting at the top, but we will see tomorrow."

Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team have brought an update to their front wing for the Dutch Grand Prix, but it appears this upgrade has not yielded the result they desire so far. The team will, however, aim to turn things around as they have done on numerous occasions to challenge the front-runners as the race weekend progresses.