Oscar Piastri took the lead for McLaren again from George Russell and Max Verstappen in FP2 in the F1 Barcelona GP.
In FP1 around Barcelona, Norris showed the McLaren’s continued dominance. Leading the field by a significant margin. However, it is always hard to tell the true performance from teams in the early sessions, with different run plans.
Tyre temperature is the talking point of the race weekend so far, with the team with the best tyre degradation able to climb their way through the order.
Green light
Charles Leclerc led the field out of the pit lane in the FP2 session, desperately looking for another weekend like Monaco. The pit lane was a slew of cars, fighting for the clean air track position around Barcelona.
Leclerc’s first lap was a 1:14.367, but as the McLaren’s crossed the finish line the Monégasque slipped through the order. Norris moved into first with a 1:13.636 and Piastri was just 0.351 seconds behind in second.
The biggest threat to McLaren’s title fight has been Max Verstappen as the only other driver to win a race in the 2025 season. In FP2, he put himself as a physical block between the two drivers, as he managed a 1:13.910, moving into second.
Fernando Alonso crossed the line on his push lap to go fourth fastest. His 1:14.256 put him ahead of both Mercedes and Ferrari’s.
Alonso has struggled in 2025, with his teammate outperforming him most weekends. However, at his home race, he’ll be hoping for a good result.
Ollie Bearman spun and took a run through the gravel ten minutes into the session. He made his way out of the gravel, but it wasn’t good for the health of his tyres.
Hadjar came onto the radio to complain about the traffic on track. A common issue that is seen in not just F1, but in the feeder series that race on the same weekend. A clean lap with no traffic is every driver’s ideal, but it’s hard to find in Spain.
George Russell took the top spot from Norris with a 1:13.501 putting a 0.135 second gap to the McLaren behind. Piastri was on a push lap further back, but the Australian only managed two yellow sectors and a green final sector, which left him fourth.
Pit break
With 40 minutes still left in the sessions, the majority of the grid dove into the pits to change tyres and tune set-ups.
Lance Stroll was having his seat taken out of his Aston Martin, engineers trying to find the source of the complaints the Canadian had.
Bearman was also in the pits, having the floor of his car looked at after his time in the gravel. Verstappen was having the same area, looking at by his mechanics.
When Verstappen came out of the pits he was on soft tyres, and he managed a time of 1:13.070, which put him into second. Just 0.024 seconds away from the Mercedes of Russell ahead. Norris crossed the line behind the Dutchman with the exact same time as Verstappen.
Antonelli crossed the line to go fourth fastest, the young driver looking for a stronger weekend after a struggle through the European triple header. Antonelli didn’t remain in fourth for long as Leclerc crossed the line with a 1:13.260 moving into fourth.
Halfway point
Oscar Piastri was on a flying push lap with three purple sectors as he managed to put two tenth on the rest of the field breaking into the 1:12s, with a 1:12.760.
While Leclerc was sat in fifth, Lewis Hamilton was struggling down in 11th place. The Brit was complaining about the car being undrivable. Which was a complaint about the lack of grip both Ferrari driver had been fighting.
After drivers put in their qualifying simulations, many switched back to the medium compound tyres, working on longer runs. The order sat with Piastri leading from Russell, Verstappen, Norris, and Leclerc in the top five. All of those drivers were focused on race simulations.
Aston Martin took the race simulation opportunity to put more flo-vis on the cars to see the aerodynamic changes the front wing regulation changes has had on the car.
The session ended with drivers on race simulations and the order from earlier on in the session.
Full Results:
- O. Piastri
- G. Russell
- M. Verstappe
- L. Norris
- C. Leclerc
- K. Antonelli
- F. Alonso
- P. Gasly
- I. Hadjar
- L. Lawson
- L. Hamilton
- N. Hülkenberg
- Y. Tsunod
- C. Sainz
- A. Albon
- L. Stroll
- G. Bortoleto
- E. Ocon
- O. Bearman
- F. Colapinto
