Norris leads McLaren one-two ahead of Verstappen in second practice · RaceFans

Lando Norris set the quickest time in second practice for the Belgian Grand Prix at Space, ahead of McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri.

Norris was two tenths quicker than his team mate on their respective push laps on fresh soft tyres mid way through the second practice session, with Max Verstappen third with an almost-identical time to Piastri’s.

It was cloudy but dry once again for the second hour of running on Friday. After setting the quickest time in the opening session, Verstappen picked up where he had left off by setting the early pace on the medium tyres, ahead of Norris.

Carlos Sainz Jnr used the soft compound to go quickest of all, but his time was beaten by to the tune of six tenths of a second by Piastri. Verstappen’s first attempt on fresh soft tyres was almost identical to Piastri’s with just two-thousandths of a second separating them to the McLaren’s advantage.

Norris beat his team mate’s best time with his first flying lap on fresh soft tyres, enjoying the quickest runs through the second and third sectors, ending up two tenths faster than Piastri and Verstappen to assume the top position on the times sheets.

Teams then began to focus their attentions on high fuel, longer runs, with several of those expected to be towards the front of the field on Sunday choosing to do so on softs.

Aside from Piastri running slightly wide at Speaker’s Corner and kicking up gravel, there were no incidents over the final part of the session as drivers completed their runs without interruption. When the chequered flag flew at the end of the hour, McLaren sat in first and second, ahead of Verstappen, just as they had been in qualifying last weekend in Hungary.

The two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Sainz were fourth and fifth, ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes. After missing out on the opening practice session with a water leak problem, Esteban Ocon was seventh for Alpine ahead of Kevin Magnussen, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton tenth just slightly faster than the two Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.

| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free