BARCELONA, Spain — McLaren’s Lando Norris was fastest during the second practice session for Sunday’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
Norris headed a top three that included Mercedes’ George Russell and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri by a mere .057 seconds.
“It’s not an easy track even though it’s a track I know more than anywhere else,” said Norris.
“It’s quick, obviously very different to the last few tracks we’ve been to in Monaco and Montreal. A lot quicker, you’re playing with the car in a different regime to where we have been the last few weeks and it seems to also be working in a better place in the last few weeks.”
Norris has failed to finish in the last two Grands Prix.
All 22 regular drivers were in action for the second, one-hour session on Friday with seven of them having stepped aside for FP1 as their cars were driven by rookies.
Max Verstappen nearly matched the best time posted by Russell from the opening session but on the hardest compound of Pirelli tire as opposed to the softest, with the Dutchman’s one minute and 16.452 seconds highlighting the track evolution of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Piastri went to the top with a 1 minute and 15.724 second run on the medium tire, as Verstappen battled with his Red Bull, which was struggling for grip on the hard rubber.
Russell also struggled, suffering a snap of oversteer through the long right of Turn 3 that sent him briefly into the run-off. Recovering from his heart-in-mouth moment, Russell moved up to second and two tenths adrift of Piastri on the medium.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc slotted into second before the Mercedes driver set a new benchmark with a 1 minute and 15.435 second blast.
Piastri improved to close within 0.048 of Russell’s best, before Norris moved to the top of the board on a 1 minute and 15.426 seconds, which remained the fastest time by 0.009 seconds until the checkered flag.
Leclerc was left in fourth, ahead of Antonelli, Verstappen and the Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad and Gabriel Bortoleto’s Audi.
