2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix FP2 report and highlights: McLaren’s Lando Norris heads Mercedes’ George Russell and Oscar Piastri in FP2
McLaren’s Lando Norris finished fastest in Free Practice 2 ahead of the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, with just 0.057s covering the World Champion from Mercedes’ George Russell and team mate Oscar Piastri.
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.
Almost immediately, Max Verstappen nearly matched the best time posted by Russell from the opening session but on the hardest compound of Pirelli tyre as opposed to the softest, with the Dutchman’s 1m 16.452s highlighting the track evolution of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Piastri became the first driver to go sub 1m 16s with a 1m 15.724s on the medium tyre, 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.
Moments later a brief Virtual Safety Car was deployed approaching the 20-minute mark as Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls came to a stop exiting the pit lane. With the stricken car recovered, Verstappen became the first driver to fit the soft tyres as focus moved towards Qualifying simulations.
But the four-time World Champion could only move up to P3 and still five tenths off Piastri’s best effort as other drivers soon followed the same tyre strategy approaching the halfway point.
Charles Leclerc slotted into P2 between Piastri and Russell, before the Mercedes driver set a new benchmark with a 1m 15.435s as Mercedes team mate Kimi Antonelli, who had sat out FP1, was five tenths adrift in P4.
Piastri improved to close within 0.048 of Russell’s best, before McLaren team mate Norris, who like Antonelli had missed FP1, moved to the top of the times on a 1m 15.426s, which remained the fastest time by 0.009s until the chequered flag.
Leclerc was left in fourth from Antonelli, Verstappen, the Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad and Gabriel Bortoleto’s Audi.
Lewis Hamilton was only able to finish P9, the Ferrari driver complaining that “something’s wrong with the rear of the car” during the session, as Isack Hadjar, who missed FP1, completed the top 10.
Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) finished P11, followed by Ollie Bearman (Haas), Lawson, Carlos Sainz’s Williams and the Alpines of Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly.
Esteban Ocon (Haas) was P17 from Valtteri Bottas, the Cadillac driver missing the early part of the session due to an ECU issue, ahead of Alex Albon (Williams) and the second Cadillac of Sergio Perez, who nearly collided with Hadjar at Turn 4 and was handed a warning.
The Aston Martins completed the order, home hero Fernando Alonso under investigation for potentially crossing the pit lane exit line as Lance Stroll finished four seconds adrift of Norris.
