Lando Norris snatched the fastest time of the Barcelona Grand Prix’s second practice session from George Russell by just 0.009s, as Oscar Piastri also got within 0.06s of his McLaren Formula 1 team-mate’s benchmark.
Norris, who missed FP1 as McLaren reserve Leonardo Fornaroli drove in an F1 session for the first time, concluded the customary FP2 soft-tyre running with a 1m15.426s, a lap that was defined by a handful of slides and corrections as the Briton attempted to coax his car through the Barcelona circuit.
Before Norris’ lap, Russell, who had headlined FP1, managed to overturn the pace set by Piastri at the start of the session on mediums. The Australian had put together a 1m15.724s to sit at the top of the order – where he remained by the end of the opening 30 minutes before Russell eclipsed the McLaren driver with a switch to softs.
Yet, Russell’s effort was beaten by less than one hundredth of a second when Norris put his soft-tyre effort together, which preceded the longer runs as the teams gravitated towards exploring their potential race pace.
Piastri’s own effort on softs brought him into the same postcode as Norris and Russell, demonstrating that McLaren appears to have made a significant step forward at a more conventional circuit after a tough weekend in Monaco.
Charles Leclerc was fourth on the timesheets, albeit 0.373s off as Ferrari continued to explore its raft of updates introduced for the Barcelona weekend. The team took a new front wing to Spain, but this has been subject to several adjustments; Lewis Hamilton reported “dragging” on the straights, prompting a flurry of action as Ferrari’s mechanics made some quick tweaks.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli was 0.589s off Norris’ pace, albeit was one of the earlier drivers to gravitate towards the soft-tyre runs.
The Italian teen reported that he was struggling with a long brake pedal, demonstrating his discomfort into the corners; Antonelli was another of seven drivers to give up his seat for FP1 as Frederik Vesti drove for Mercedes in the early session.
Max Verstappen and Arvid Lindblad were the only remaining drivers within a second of Norris’ soft-tyre effort, with Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto another two tenths behind the Briton. Hamilton, who reported heavy tyre degradation late on in the session, was ninth fastest. Many of the drivers experienced tyre wear during their longer runs, suggesting that the race might not necessarily produce a customary one-stop scenario seen so far this season.
Isack Hadjar was 10th fastest, narrowly avoiding contact with Sergio Perez during the session as the Cadillac driver turned in on him, with Nico Hulkenberg and Ollie Bearman just outside of the top 10.
Liam Lawson was 13th despite his engine having “died” after the first 15 minutes, resulting in his stoppage on the exit of the pitlane. There was no red flag to recover the car, however, as a virtual safety car covered off the removal of his stranded Racing Bulls chassis. His time from the early stages of the session was enough to sit clear of the Williams and Alpine drivers, plus Esteban Ocon.
F1 Barcelona GP – FP2 Results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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