Austrian GP: Lando Norris fastest in FP2 as Lewis Hamilton faces FIA investigation

Oliver Harden 27 Jun 2025 5:01 PM

An action shot of Lando Norris's McLaren on track in Austria

Lando Norris (McLaren MCL39) in action in FP2 in Austria

McLaren driver Lando Norris set the pace in Friday’s FP2 session at the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.

Norris, who missed Friday’s first session in which McLaren junior Alex Dunne starred behind the wheel of the championship-leading MCL39, went 0.157 seconds than team-mate and F1 2025 championship leader Oscar Piastri in second practice.

Austrian Grand Prix FP2: Lando Norris fastest of all for McLaren

Max Verstappen, the reigning four-time World Champion and a five-time winner in Spielberg, was third for Red Bull as he persevered without his trusty race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

Meanwhile, Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton found himself at the centre of an FIA investigation for an impeding incident involving Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Liam Lawson hit trouble moments after leaving the pits for the first time at the start of the session, telling Racing Bulls over team radio on his out lap: “Something is not right, mate. My steering is pulling massively to the right.”

Returning slowly to the pits, he added: “If I let go of the steering, it goes hard right.”

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The Mercedes pair of Antonelli and George Russell set the early pace on medium tyres, with the latter remarking over team radio that the wind had “changed quite a lot” since he set the fastest time of FP1.

Mercedes’ advantage did not last long as Piastri took his McLaren to top spot with his first meaningful lap of the session on hards.

Despite a touch of the gravel, Norris soon came through to take P1 for himself with a 0.087-seconds advantage over his team-mate on the same compound.

Russell quickly improved to split the McLarens, with Norris extending the gap to 0.443s on his next run.

Charles Leclerc, inside the top six in the early stages after missing FP1, radioed Ferrari that the car was “not decelerating at all into Turn 1.”

Leclerc’s team-mate Hamilton was also having difficulty, commenting early on: “For some reason I’ve just got no pace, mate.”

Moments later, Leclerc was in the gravel at the high-speed Turn 6. The incident came moments after Leclerc had been forced to run wide at Turn 3.

Hamilton was also in the wars with Antonelli forced to take avoiding action after encountering a slow-moving Hamilton on the approach to Turn 4.

“Mate, what is going on with these people? Honestly,” Antonelli said.

Hamilton, who held up his hand in apology, told Ferrari: “I couldn’t see Antonelli at all, so…”

The Ferrari driver found himself at the centre of a post-session investigation by the FIA for impeding Antonelli.

Verstappen was the last to take to the track and wasted no time by going second on soft tyres, 0.116s short of the medium-tyred McLaren of Norris, setting a purple final sector in the process.

On his next lap, Norris opted to squeeze through a small gap to the left of a slow-moving Verstappen on the long blast towards Turn 3.

A surprised Verstappen said to Red Bull: “What the hell? Just drives on the left.”

Russell retook second place from Verstappen with his next effort, going just 0.034s slower than Norris but on a compound one step softer.

The Mercedes driver finally dislodged Norris with his next run, putting 0.208s between himself and the McLaren.

A host of other drivers turned to softs at that stage for the qualifying simulations, with Piastri initially going 0.492s clear of Russell before Norris set three purple sectors to go 0.157s faster.

Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin breached the top three at one stage with an impressive lap on softs as Nico Hulkenberg ran wide on the exit of Turn 1 while opening up his first soft lap.

With Sauber aiming to build on its strong form since introducing a major upgrade package in Spain, Hulkenberg’s team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto had a cleaner run to post the eighth-fastest time of all.

Hulkenberg later told Sauber: “I’m not feeling the love. Somehow a lot of the front is not really gripping in many places.”

Oliver Bearman was another driver to explore the limits of the Red Bull Ring, dipping the wheels of his Haas in the gravel at Turn 6 before the field turned attention to long runs for the final 20 minutes of the session.

Antonelli’s adventures continued as he ran wide on the exit of Turn 1 before locking up into Turn 4 in the closing moments of the session.

“Struggling a lot with the fronts now,” Verstappen reported before coming in for a racing-style pit stop with three minutes left on the clock.

Meanwhile, 14th placed Pierre Gasly told Alpine: “Something is broken on the car. It’s disastrous. Turn 1 and 6 all over the place.”