FP2: Norris leads Piastri and Verstappen during second practice in Austria

McLaren driver Lando Norris topped the timesheets during Friday afternoon’s second practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix, leading the way from team mate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull rival Max Verstappen.

A couple of hours on from an initial outing topped by George Russell and Mercedes, who claimed pole position and victory last time out in Canada, the 20-strong field had another 60 minutes to dial in their cars through an increasingly overcast but warm and dry FP2.

Back in action after Alex Dunne’s eye-catching FP1 run, Lando Norris soon stated his intentions when the session began by clocking a 1m 05.437s on medium tyres, putting him just ahead of Russell (softs), Verstappen (softs) and Piastri (hards) at the one-third mark.

Elsewhere, there was some drama for Charles Leclerc, who also missed first practice and went for a trip through the gravel at Turn 6, while Kimi Antonelli had to take avoiding action when he approached a slow-moving Lewis Hamilton at Turn 4.

As the session developed and every driver pumped in laps on the red-marked soft rubber, Norris maintained his superiority with a 1m 04.580s – a tenth-and-a-half quicker than Piastri and three-tenths faster than Verstappen, who used two fresh sets.

Continuing to bounce back from wrist surgery, Lance Stroll impressed en route to fourth position for Aston Martin, from Leclerc, Russell and the sister Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda, whose best lap put him within four-tenths of team mate Verstappen.

Kick Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto was another driver to make their mark with a run to eighth, just in front of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin and Hamilton, who lamented to his engineer over the radio that “for some reason I’ve just got no pace, mate”.

Antonelli wound up just outside the top-10 places, followed by the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson – who had to return to the pits early on thanks to his steering wheel “pulling me massively to the right” – and Isack Hadjar.

Pierre Gasly was the first driver with a deficit of more than a second to pace-setter Norris in another ultra-close session, taking 14th in his Alpine over the Haas and Williams machines – Esteban Ocon leading Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz and Ollie Bearman.

Fresh from points-scoring runs in Spain and Canada, it was a quieter practice session for Nico Hulkenberg, who was around half a second slower than Sauber team mate Bortoleto in 19th.

Hulkenberg reported over the radio that “I’m not feeling the love” from the car as the chequered flag approached, leaving the German ahead of only Alpine’s Franco Colapinto on the FP2 timing screen.

Drivers and teams will now regroup in the Red Bull Ring paddock to dig through the data and ponder set-up changes before the third and final practice session, which is due to begin at 1230 local time on Saturday.