Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Lando Norris gave McLaren the clearest statement of Friday in Barcelona by leading second practice with a 1:15.426, narrowly beating George Russell’s Mercedes by 0.009s and team-mate Oscar Piastri by 0.057s, while Max Verstappen could manage only sixth for Red Bull, 0.895s off the pace.
That mattered more than a usual Friday result because Verstappen had arrived at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya calling the weekend an important gauge of Red Bull’s form in fast corners. On Thursday, the Red Bull driver said the recent races had mainly taken place at tracks with many slow corners and added: “That’s why this is an important benchmark for us, because here there are a lot of fast corners. So far this year we haven’t been particularly strong at these kinds of circuits. Hopefully we will be more competitive here.”
Instead, the first full field session pointed to McLaren and Mercedes as the teams most at ease on a layout that traditionally exposes high-speed weakness. Behind Norris, Russell and Piastri, Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari on 1:15.799, with Kimi Antonelli fifth on 1:16.015. Verstappen’s best lap, a 1:16.321, left him almost nine tenths down on Norris.
Verstappen’s frustration had already been visible in the opening session. Although he briefly moved to the top on soft tyres with a 1:17.047, Russell answered with a 1:16.363 to finish fastest in FP1, ahead of Piastri at 0.203s and Leclerc at 0.520s, with Verstappen fourth at 0.684s. More telling than the ranking was the feedback from the Red Bull garage. Over the radio in FP1, Verstappen said: “One moment I have understeer, then I have oversteer. It is terrible.”
The complaints did not go away in FP2. Verstappen set the early pace on hard tyres with a 1:16.452, but Piastri soon moved well clear and Red Bull never found a convincing response as the session evolved. Later, during a long run, Verstappen asked his team: “Can I stop earlier, or try the other tyres? This is terrible.”
There was one interruption when Liam Lawson stopped exiting the pits, triggering a virtual safety car, but once the session resumed the order at the front only strengthened the picture of a McLaren-Mercedes fight. Russell briefly went fastest on softs before Norris edged ahead, and the top three ended the hour covered by just 0.057s.
Friday’s running came in punishing heat, with air temperatures near 30C and track temperatures around 49 to 50C, conditions that put tyre wear at the center of the day. On a circuit Red Bull had effectively identified as a proving ground, McLaren and Mercedes looked best adapted to both the high-speed corners and the demanding surface, while Verstappen and Red Bull left the opening day with balance problems still unresolved despite bringing a revised front wing and using FP1 to evaluate upgrades.