FP2: Norris heads an utterly dominant McLaren one-two in second practice at Spielberg

Despite sitting out the opening practice at the Red Bull Ring, McLaren driver Lando Norris set an eye-catching time in the second one-hour session. F1Technical’s Balazs Szabo reports from the Red Bull Ring.

Lando Norris was forced to sit out the opening session as he headed over his car to Alexander Dunne. However, he did not look affected by the lack of running in FP2, setting strong lap times on the hard tyres in the opening stages of the practice.

Once he ran the softs, he looked dominant out on the track, confirming his superiority with a 1m 04.580s – a tenth-and-a-half quicker than his team-mate Piastri and three-tenths faster than Max Verstappen, who used two fresh sets.

Having missed the Spanish Grand Prix, Aston Martin's Lance Stroll returned to action at his home race at Montreal. While the Canadian still continues to bounce back from his wrist surgery, he was very impressive in the second practice at the Red Bull Ring, ending up fourth quickest.

Having sat out the opening session, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc had a quiet start to the second practice, but he constantly improved his pace, ending up fifth, ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell and Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda.

Having failed to score any points in the last three races, the Japanese looked much stronger today, with his best lap having put him within four-tenths of team mate Verstappen.

Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto was another driver to make their mark with a run to eighth, with two-time world champion Fernando Alonso having ended up ninth quickest.

Lewis Hamilton spent the opening one-hour practice by trying out Ferrari's heavily upgraded floor. The seven-time world champion looked relatively strong in FP2, but his quickest lap was only enough for P10.

His Mercedes replacement Andrea Kimi Antonelli wound up just outside the top-10 places, followed by the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar.

Alpine and Williams looked strong in the opening practice session, but both teams looked to struggle in FP2. Pierre Gasly and Franci Colapinto ended up 14th and 20th respectively while Alexander Albon and Carlos Sainz secured P16 and P17 for the Grove-based outift.