British GP: McLaren lay down early marker to Red Bull as Lando Norris heads FP2 1-2
McLaren driver Lando Norris in action at Silverstone
Lando Norris led a McLaren one-two in FP2 at the British Grand Prix as the team laid down an early marker to Max Verstappen and Red Bull at Silverstone.
After setting the pace in FP1, Norris’s fastest time of 1:26.549 in the second practice session was 0.331 seconds faster than McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.
Lando Norris leads McLaren one-two in British Grand Prix in FP2
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez, who set his quickest lap slightly later than his rivals, was third, with Verstappen down in seventh – 0.684s off the pace – after a wide moment on one of his soft-tyred attempts.
Fair conditions greeted the drivers as the green light appeared to signal the start of FP2, with the field wasting no time to get some early laps on the board.
Most began the session on medium tyres, with Verstappen setting the early pace with a lap 0.326 seconds faster than Norris straight out of the box.
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It was a different story for team-mate Perez, who was 1.568s slower than his team-mate on his early sighter.
Lewis Hamilton soon improved to slot his Mercedes between Verstappen and Norris on his next run, closing the gap to the reigning World Champion to 0.270s.
Elsewhere, things were not going so swimmingly for Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver forced to cut the track and abort a lap after a snap through Chapel, with Pierre Gasly bouncing his Alpine over the new exit kerb at Copse.
“I really struggle in high speed,” Leclerc radioed after his moment. “I don’t know if you see how tricky the car is, but…”
His race engineer, Bryan Bozzi, responded: “Yeah, it’s really on the edge.”
Ferrari have struggled with bouncing in high-speed corners since recent upgrades to the car at Imola and Barcelona, with a leading theory suggesting the increased downforce of the SF-24 car has reawakened the porpoising phenomenon commonplace with ground-effect cars.
Leclerc’s twitch did not stop him improving to second soon after, with Carlos Sainz going fourth, before Verstappen re-emerged from the pits with a a set of soft tyres fitted to his Red Bull RB20.
As Sainz complained of the track getting slower due to the increased wind and temperatures, Verstappen’s first soft lap put him 0.851s clear of the opposition.
Meanwhile, George Russell, the winner in Austria last weekend, was the latest to have a bumpy ride over the kerb at Copse, but managed to shave the deficit to Verstappen to 0.273s by going second with a spirited lap on mediums.
Fernando Alonso, with just one points finish in the last five races heading into Silverstone, was the next to sample the softs and relieved Russell of second place, before Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas took P2 away from the Aston Martin man – going even faster than Verstappen in Sector 1.
Alex Albon, Bottas’s team-mate Zhou Gunayu and Logan Sargeant also breached the top 10 as a growing number of drivers switched to the red-striped rubber.
Alonso’s team-mate Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg also went purple in the first sector of their soft laps, with the Haas driver briefly taking top spot from Verstappen as Leclerc – despite another snap at Chapel and a wide moment at Stowe – improved his time.
Hulkenberg’s time at the top of the leaderboard was short-lived, however, as Piastri and Norris came through to put McLaren first and second at the halfway stage, the latter going 0.331s clear.
Norris was then heard asking McLaren to check the state of his floor after a wide moment at Copse.
That came as Verstappen had a Leclerc-like snap of his own at Chapel, with the Dutchman soon returning to the Red Bull garage.
Perez had improved to 10th by the time he returned to the track for his own soft effort, out of sync with many of his rivals, with the Mexican relieving Hulkenberg of third under gradually darkening skies.
Daniel Ricciardo was warned by RB that rain was coming as Kevin Magnussen ran wide at Stowe on his soft lap, the Haas man remaining at the foot of the timesheets.
With the threat of rain increasing, qualifying simulations were put aside as teams turned their attention to the crucial long runs.
The reduced pace and heavier fuel load did little to tame Leclerc’s car as the Ferrari man had yet another snap on the exit of Luffield, while Norris was warned McLaren would be taking no risks when the rain arrived.
Soon after, Norris almost did take too much risk with a power slide on the exit of Luffield as the McLaren skirted the edge of the gravel.
The rain duly arrived with around seven minutes left on the clock, with Red Bull squeezing in some pit-stop practice as Verstappen and Perez returned to the pits.
Hamilton, who ended the session 0.653s off the pace in sixth, was heard telling Mercedes “the track is fine, I’m just slow” as he called it a day.
Sainz raised a smile in the closing minutes of the session when, upon learning his former McLaren team-mate Norris was the only other driver still on track, the Ferrari driver said: “Car-Lando!”
With drivers forbidden from performing practice starts in the pit lane at Silverstone, a number of cars returned to the circuit on intermediate tyres to line up on the grid ahead of the real thing on Sunday.
British Grand Prix: Full classification from FP2 at Silverstone
1 Lando NORRIS 1:26.549
2 Oscar PIASTRI +0.331
3 Sergio PEREZ +0.434
4 Nico HULKENBERG +0.441
5 Charles LECLERC +0.601
6 Lewis HAMILTON +0.653
7 Max VERSTAPPEN +0.684
8 Carlos SAINZ +0.700
9 Lance STROLL +0.725
10 George RUSSELL +0.745
11 Fernando ALONSO +0.823
12 Valtteri BOTTAS +0.832
13 Alexander ALBON +1.096
14 Pierre GASLY +1.183
15 Esteban OCON +1.194
16 Yuki TSUNODA +1.196
17 Logan SARGEANT +1.260
18 Guanyu ZHOU +1.264
19 Daniel RICCIARDO +1.367
20 Kevin MAGNUSSEN +1.573
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