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Lando Norris Tops Barcelona Practice as McLaren Edge Mercedes in Tight FP2 Battle

Posted : 12 June 2026

Lando Norris finished fastest at the end of Friday practice for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, narrowly edging Mercedes’ George Russell in a tightly contested session that left multiple teams uncertain about outright pace heading into qualifying.

Norris set the benchmark time by just 0.009 seconds, with teammate Oscar Piastri close behind in third, only 0.057 seconds off the leading pace. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc placed fourth, 0.373 seconds adrift, while championship leader Kimi Antonelli ended the day in fourth overall classification despite showing strong underlying pace.

Antonelli’s headline lap was compromised by traffic during his qualifying simulation, making his final position somewhat misleading. While he also impressed on race-pace runs later in the session, comparisons with Russell were complicated by the use of different tyre strategies.

It was a more challenging day for Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who missed the opening practice session as junior driver Dino Beganovic took part, before finishing ninth in FP2 and struggling to find consistent performance.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen placed sixth but was nearly nine-tenths off the pace, ahead of Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto in a mixed midfield order.

Earlier in the day, Russell had set the pace in FP1 ahead of Piastri, while Antonelli ceded his seat to reserve driver Frederik Vesti, underlining the weekend’s focus on balancing development running with competitive preparation.

With small gaps across the field and multiple teams running different programmes, Friday’s action at Barcelona left the competitive order wide open heading into qualifying.

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