There were obstacles to overcome in the opening brace of practice sessions among the dunes of Zandvoort as Fernando and Lance got back to the wheel of the AMR23.

Fans were greeted by pristine blue skies and warm weather as the rain stayed away on Friday, but the two practice sessions were peppered by cautions and stoppages as drivers got to grips with the high-speed, flowing, and unforgiving circuit.

Lance was hampered by a power unit issue in FP1, which effectively stopped him from turning a practice lap. He returned to post the eighth-fastest time in FP2 with 31 laps to his count.

Fernando finished a promising P2 in the opening practice session, running some of the 22 laps with an aero rake on the car to evaluate our upgrades, before he finished 10th in the following session with another 31 laps under his belt.

We will continue to push hard and test upgrades - including changes to the floor and diffuser - to the AMR23 on Saturday and look to maximise our Qualifying performance given how difficult it is to overtake at Zandvoort.

Fernando Alonso: "The upgrades to the AMR23 feel good, although we didn't complete the programme that we were hoping to - there were a couple of red flags. There was nothing too dramatic on my side and we got good information on Friday, but we still need to analyse everything and put everything together for tomorrow."

Lance Stroll: "I feel okay after the opening day of practice. We had limited running in FP1 because of the power unit issue, which is a shame as Zandvoort is a great track and a lot of fun, but the issue was quickly resolved by the team so I could return for the second session. We have to look into the data overnight to evaluate the upgrades and come back tomorrow to continue our programme."

Check out our Friday gallery from Zandvoort here.