Lando Norris edges George Russell as top three separated by 0.057s in FP2

Lando Norris set the pace in Friday’s second session for the Barcelona Grand Prix, as the McLaren driver put aside his recent reliability issues to record a trouble-free session.

The reigning world champion clocked a 1:15.426, beating George Russell by 0.009s with Oscar Piastri third. The trio was separated by just 0.057s.

Lando Norris sets the pace in FP2

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After an FP1 session filled with young drivers, the F1 race drivers were back in action for FP2 at the Barcelona circuit. Sergio Perez, who sat out the day’s first practice for Colton Herta, was the first driver out on track.

Max Verstappen set the early pace with a 1:16.452 but was overhauled by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by seven-tenths of a second. Charles Leclerc was third after the opening ten minutes.

Laying down the laps on a track that the drivers are highly familiar with having spent a lot of time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in their junior careers as well as F1 testing, Piastri upped his pace to a 1:15.724 with FP1 pace-setter George Russell up to second place.

The VSC came out as Liam Lawson coasted to a halt as he exited the pits to start his fourth lap of the session. “It’s off, I have nothing. The dash is just ‘engine stop’,” said Lawson. “Oh, the gearbox broke.”

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Midway through the session, it was Piastri ahead of Russell and Verstappen, with Lando Norris in fourth place ahead of Leclerc and Isack Hadjar. Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton, who both sat out FP1, were eighth and 12th respectively.

Alex Albon wasn’t happy with his Williams and asked the team if he should box so that they could “regroup” as he had never felt so “disconnected before”. He was 18th on the timesheet, three seconds off the pace.

After switching to the soft tyres, Russell stormed to the front, three-tenths clear of Piastri. His teammate Antonelli improved to fourth.

As more qualifying simulations took place, Leclerc was up to fourth place ahead of Antonelli, Arvid Lindblad slotted into seventh behind Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton moved up to ninth place ahead of Isack Hadjar.

Hadjar was left frustrated with “idiot” Perez as the Cadillac driver crowded him to the side, and almost off the track. Antonelli reported that his brake pedal felt “long” and was “horrible”.

The session ended with a P1 for Norris, with the Briton, Russell and Piastri separated by 0.057s.

Barcelona Grand Prix: FP2 times

1 Norris 1:15.426
2 Russell 1:15.435
3 Piastri 1:15.483
4 Leclerc 1:15.799
5 Antonelli 1:16.015
6 Verstappen 1:16.321
7 Lindblad 1:16.411
8 Bortoleto 1:16.611
9 Hamilton 1:16.631
10 Hadjar 1:16.674

The full result from FP2 at the Barcelona Grand Prix

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