McLaren surged to the forefront on Friday at the Red Bull Ring, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locking out the top two positions in Free Practice 2 ahead of the 2025 Austrian GP.
Despite sitting out FP1 to allow rookie Alex Dunne his mandatory outing, Norris was instantly up to speed in the afternoon session, clocking a 1:04.580 to lead the field. Piastri followed closely, just 0.157s behind, with Max Verstappen trailing by over three-tenths on a circuit known for its tight margins.
Norris on the chances McLaren can take
Having only one hour of track time under his belt on Friday, Norris was quick to praise the team’s direction and Dunne’s earlier contribution.
“I think the car felt good from the off. Alex [Dunne] gave good feedback this morning after FP1 and he was on the pace straight away, so that was good to see,” Norris said. “I think they moved the car in the right direction for FP2, and we just need to understand if we want more of that tomorrow, or a little bit less, or somewhere in the middle.
“Good steps in the right direction, but still a little bit more to come hopefully.”
Despite topping the timesheets, Norris remains cautious heading into Qualifying, pointing to the usual late-weekend charge from Red Bull and other rivals.
“I think as a team we seemed a bit more competitive,” he continued. “I think we definitely didn’t look that good this morning, so I think we did move things in the right direction.
Norris added: “I think as always we are very quick in FP2 at times [and] we’ve shown a bit more pace than some of the others. I certainly think they’re going to catch up, Max is not far behind, and they [Red Bull] normally improve a lot into Saturday.“
On his expectations for the weekend he said: “I expect a good day tomorrow and I’m sure we’ll improve on some things, but it’s not as easy as maybe it looked today. I think it’s still going to be tight tomorrow, it always is, there’s no reason for it not to be, but we’ll work hard to make it as big of a gap as possible.”
Piastri is on the same page
Oscar Piastri, who had a clean and consistent day across both sessions, echoed Norris’ sentiments. The Australian briefly led FP2 before being eclipsed by his teammate, but he’s confident heading into Saturday.
“It looked pretty good,” Piastri commented. “Max is still close, so I think he’ll be definitely a threat this weekend. But no, the car’s feeling good, I think the pace is quite good, so a positive first day.”
With McLaren introducing recent updates to the MCL39, Norris previously noted that development was “going in the right direction.” Piastri added clarification on what he’s running this weekend in terms of parts.
“There’s some other bits and pieces… I’m not using the bits that came in Canada, because they’re not an upgrade, they’re just different,” he confirmed. “All the parts that we think will make the car faster are on both cars.”
McLaren’s strong start is a continuation of their upward momentum in recent races, but with the likes of Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari expected to close the gap in Qualifying, both Norris and Piastri know the real challenge is yet to come. Still, Friday’s performance sends a clear signal: McLaren are firmly in the mix at the Austrian GP.
