McLaren Heading In The Right Direction, Norris Says After Barcelona Practice

Lando Norris sets the early pace for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix weekend, as McLaren lead a tight second practice session and signal a possible recovery after two difficult race retirements in Canada and Monaco, while Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull monitor tyre issues and changing winds.

Norris tops the FP2 times by 0.009 seconds from George Russell, who had been fastest in first practice. Oscar Piastri reinforces McLaren’s strong showing with third, 0.057secs away, while Charles Leclerc is fourth. Leclerc arrives after a late crash in Monaco, adding pressure on Ferrari’s preparations.

The front of the field appears closely matched at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with Norris, Russell, Piastri and Leclerc separated by less than a tenth of a second. Conditions prove hot and windy, and most teams report overheating tyres and nervous balance during both short and long runs.

Kimi Antonelli, who currently leads the Drivers Championship by a clear margin, completes only one of Friday’s sessions. Mercedes give reserve driver Frederik Vesti track time under the mandated junior driver rule. Vesti’s outing limits Antonelli’s mileage before qualifying, but provides useful data for the team’s engineers.

Antonelli returns for the later session and ends 0.274secs slower than team-mate Russell on the timesheets. The Italian describes a tricky one-lap preparation but reports stronger performance over longer runs, and expects further setup changes before qualifying and race simulations on Saturday.

"The tyres are overheating quite a lot," Antonelli said. "Just trying to find the best balance. With only one lap, it is always difficult, but overall, there is still quite a bit of work to do. But I am quite confident ahead of [qualifying]. Long run was good, but looking forward to [Saturday] and the changes we're going to make."

Norris arrives in Spain under scrutiny after consecutive retirements in Monaco and Canada ended strong runs of form. The Barcelona circuit layout, with faster, more flowing corners, contrasts sharply with those recent street tracks and appears to suit the current strengths of the McLaren package.

"Very different from the last two tracks in Monaco and Canada," Norris said. "It's quicker, playing with the car in a very different regime than the last few weeks, and it seems to be working in a better place than the last few weeks. A reasonable Friday. Still a good few things to improve. It's hot, and I don't think anyone's going to be that happy. It's difficult with the wind and with the conditions, but it seems to be working better than the last few weeks, which is a good sign. We're up there with the people we want to be with. It's hard to know what fuel loads others are on, but we're just happy we're heading in the right direction after the last couple of weeks."

Lewis Hamilton, who finished second in Monaco the previous weekend, places only ninth in Friday’s second practice. Hamilton sits behind Max Verstappen, another Monaco retiree, who ends the session sixth, as both drivers and teams still adapt to the heat, wind and evolving grip levels in Spain.

With McLaren leading FP2, Mercedes splitting practice duties for Antonelli and Vesti, and Ferrari and Red Bull managing tyre concerns, the competitive order before qualifying at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit remains tight, although Norris and McLaren leave Friday encouraged by clear signs of better performance than in Monaco and Canada.