Lando Norris completed a Friday sweep of topping Formula 1 British Grand Prix practice sessions, leading a McLaren one-two in Free Practice Two.
Norris’ benchmark of 1:26.549s saw him finish 0.331s clear of team-mate Oscar Piastri and showed that McLaren is the team to beat heading into the remainder of the weekend at Silverstone.
Rain interfered with the Silverstone track surface throughout the FIA Formula 3 qualifying session that preceded F1’s second practice session on Friday.
The temperamental British summertime threatened to intervene in FP2 and despite the circuit being declared dry at the start of the hour-long session, there was a 60% chance that rain would fall.
17 minutes in and despite Silverstone’s typical wind blowing through, the rain was nowhere to be seen and Verstappen set the initial benchmark on the soft tyres, a 1:27.233s effort.
10 minutes passed before anyone else bolted on softs and Fernando Alonso came within a tenth of a half of Verstappen’s time, only to be pipped by 0.005s by Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas.
A 1:27.274s effort from Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, slotting him into a provisional second, proved a combination of track evolution and more soft tyre runs would see the order change considerably.
McLaren quickly rose to the top of the pecking order, led by Norris with Piastri best of the rest and that was how the session would remain as the latter half saw the majority of the field commit to race simulations.
Even if anyone fancied a quick push-lap in the latter stages, a rain shower in the closing minutes firmly put to bed anyone improving their standing.
Despite missing out on FP1 to allow FIA Formula 2 title-chaser Isack Hadjar an outing in the RB20, Sergio Perez was third, leading Red Bull’s charge thanks to his time of 1:26.983s, 0.434s off of Norris’ benchmark.
Slotting into a surprise fourth was Haas’ push-lap specialist Nico Hulkenberg, sliding himself among F1’s elite thanks to an impressive 1:26.990s laptime.
Hulkenberg used a base-line spec Haas during FP1 and Friday afternoon’s session was his first in the upgraded Silverstone-spec VF-24 and his fine run to fourth hints that the upgrades are working as planned.
Despite a few nervy moments with his unpredictable Ferrari, particularly through the high-speed sequence of corners through Maggots and Becketts, Charles Leclerc was able to wrestle his car into the top five, albeit six-tenths off of the pace.
Lewis Hamilton finished as the leading Mercedes driver in sixth, with his time of 1:27.202s just under a tenth faster than team-mate George Russell, who was resigned to completing the top-10.
Verstappen struggled to put a chart-topping lap together, almost losing control of his RB20 on a second soft tyre push lap and subsequently failed to improve beyond his 1:27.233s lap time, resigning him to seventh place in the final order.
Filling the gap between Verstappen and Russell were Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finishing eighth and ninth respectively.
With four rookie drivers partaking in FP1, FP2 marked the first time out on track for not just Perez, but also Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Williams’ Logan Sargeant.
All three of them struggled to set a truly competitive lap, with Gasly 14th, albeit one place ahead of his Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon, Sargeant 17th and Magnussen dead last, a considerable margin behind his Haas team-mate Hulkenberg.
With all 20 runners setting the fastest laps on the soft tyre, a pecking order picture was painted ahead of Saturday’s qualifying session.
Just 1.5s covered the entire field and only 0.745s covered the top-10.
