British GP FP2: Norris tops, Ferrari chase, Verstappen struggles
F1 NewsFriday, 04 July 2025 at 18:02
Lando Norris went fastest at the end of the second free practice session for the 2025 British Grand Prix as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were second fastest.
Norris was over two tenths of the second clear of Leclerc who was second while Hamilton was a tenth further down the road in third place.
Oscar Piastri was fourth fastest in the other McLaren, 0.470s off the pace of his teammate.
But those who should be worried by their FP2 are Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen as the reigning Formula 1 champion continued to struggle with understeer on his RB21, a trait he loathes with the cars he drives.
Verstappen was fifth fastest almost half a second slower than Norris' session-topping time which means the midnight oil will be burning over at Milton Keynes on Friday night trying to find some solutions, and while they are known to find pace between Friday and Saturday, can they find half a second?
Kimi Antonelli was the faster Mercedes driver in FP2 and was sixth fastest while Lance Stroll was seventh in the upgraded Aston Martin. George Russell was eighth.
Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson were ninth and tenth for Racing Bulls.
It was notable that, in qualifying runs, some teams managed to find their best times on their first lap, such as McLaren, while both Ferrari drivers and Verstappen managed to find more pace on their second timed laps.
McLaren remained the team to beat in terms of race pace as well while Ferrari looked decent.
Buildup toward FP2
Hamilton may have finished the first British GP practice session on top, but the McLaren lads ran him really close throughout the 60 minutes of running.
Lewis always finds something extra in Silverstone, but we will have to wait and see how his maiden home race with Ferrari develops and whether the British fans will give their hero enough ammo to overcome his struggles with his SF-25.
Mercedes seemed a bit better this weekend which is no surprise given the lower temperature that prevailed in FP1 while Verstappen's form was alarming.
His RB21 was all over the place during the first practice session and we will have to see how he fares in FP2 keeping in mind Red Bull Racing's ability to find gains between Friday and Saturday.
FP2 Session Highlights
Clear conditions remained into FP2 while track temperatures have slightly increased to 41 degrees Celsius as air temperature also went up to 24 degrees.
There was a bit of hesitation by teams before sending their drivers out despite being given the green light, but a couple of minutes later the action started.
Piastri was warned about the wind which was gusty as it was in FP1.
Aside from the Haas cars who started the session on Hards, all the other drivers were on the Medium tyres.
Soon after, Carlos Sainz was a bit out of shape coming out of the final corner while Russell did well holding a slight snap through Maggots and Becketts.
The drivers went on pounding around the track with the Medium tyres.
Then Verstappen radioed: "Have you seen my front tyres in the high speed? They just don't respond!" He was instructed to box.
Then the Yellow flag came out as Sainz spun in Turn 7 almost taking out Hamilton and was under investigation for not safely joining the track. He did that ahead of an incoming Sauber.
Sainz boxed and asked his team whether it was dirty air or a wind gust that threw him off course. A wind gust was the answer from his engineer.
Verstappen continued to struggle as replay showed him running wide and over the kerbs coming out of Copse.
Hamilton on the other hand is relishing his time on track at Silverstone as he posted the fastest time, three tenths faster than Leclerc in second. That was 25 minutes into the session.
Moments after that, Russell was the first driver to stick on the Soft tyres and started a qualifying run in his Mercedes. Antonelli followed.
Russell went fastest but not by much from Hamilton only for Antonelli to go even faster as more driver started to rejoin the track on Softs with the timings getting reshuffled.
Then Nico Hulkenberg reported that it felt very "gusty" and that his car was "tossed around" a lot. Then Leclerc after momentarily posting the fastest time on the Softs reported something wrong with his front-left corner claiming he could otherwise find more pace.
Norris then went fastest.
Verstappen continued struggling with understeer and could only manage eighth fastest on his first run on Softs.
Into the final 20 minutes into the sessions and the long runs were underway.
Sainz was not in a good place with his Williams as replay showed him running wide at the same corner he spun at earlier in the session.
Norris, after that, locked up his front-right tyre going into Turn 3 and consequently ran wide and on the kerbs as he exited the corner. Tsunoda had the same incident at the same corner moments later.
On his cool down lap, Leclerc delivered his verdict on his SF-25; he said: "I think we've got to maximize quali, but the setup for the race is pretty good.
British GP FP2 Classification
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