FP2 Highlights | 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix

Second practice in Barcelona, Catalunya, and there was a now unfamiliar orange tinge to the timing tables. It's been a difficult start to Orlando Norris' title defence. The Briton is currently P6 and equal on points with his McLaren team-mate Oskar Piastri in the overall standings. Memories of their Titanic Championship fight last year fading fast. However, the 2025 World Champion managed the fastest lap of the day, clocked at a 1 minute 15, 4.26. His Australian team-mate took his fifth win of last season at this track, and was also in decent form in Friday practice this year. P2 in FP1, and he was one place further back this time out. Sandwiched between the papaya pair was George Russell, who had a big wobble at Turn 3, but managed to keep his Mercedes going in the right direction. Not so later at Turn 10, the Briton locking up and taking to the loose stuff. Quite a few regulars had taken Friday's first session off, including current Drivers' Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who also went deep at the 10th corner. The Italian teenager joined an exclusive club after his win in Monaco, the Five on the Bounce Brigade, which includes such legends as Jack Brabham, Jim Clarke, Nigel Mantle and Lewis Hamilton. This circuit holds many great memories for some, and none more so than Max Verstappen, who famously won here on his debut for Red Bull in 2016, becoming the youngest ever winner of a Formula One Grand Prix in the process. Having dealt with the usual balance and handling issues in first practice, the four-time world champion was still working things out in FP2, these little corrections through Turn 4 helping him to get a feeling for the RB22's long-run pace. But not all was well in the Max camp. Can I stop before I try the other tyre? It's just horrendous. Yeah, copy that Max. Another with strong connection to this locale is Lewis Hamilton, having been on the top step six times. He usually knows how to get the most out of this circuit. However, he was struggling this time out. Something's wrong with the rear of the car. Car was dragging down the straight. Could be the wind, maybe a rotation of the wind. Tyre deg seemed to be an issue, the seven-time champ very wide at Turn 8 as a consequence. Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc had the better time of it, P4 for his efforts. Fernando Alonso, twice a winner here, found some serious traffic at the midway point. Oh, I love this. Oh my god, it's those are the little mental games that you just love. You know what I mean? It's like, no, I can help my teammate here. It's okay. Oh, sorry. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I didn't mean it. You never mean it. It's okay. An Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll elected to take the long way round at Turn 9. Carlos Sainz went fishtailing out of Turn 8. The Spaniard will be hoping for a good showing this weekend in front of his home fans. He has a great record here, 10 times in the points of the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit. William's teammate Alex Albon was keen to get some laps in. He'd been scheduled to sit out FP1, but his FW48 had suffered an electrical problem anyway, meaning rookie Luke Browning was Once behind the wheel, he just wasn't feeling it. The Thai driver is sporting a special lid this weekend in tribute to 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell. If Albon makes Sunday's grid, he'll surpass the Briton. The most Grand Prix starts for the Williams team. Liam Lawson ground to a halt exiting the pit lane. Well, it sounds like he lifted off. We can still hear the engine running at this point. I think the engine is running because he's in gear more than any power. Yeah, the engine definitely was still running at that point because you could hear it almost as he came over the pit lane speed limiter. I don't think it was a gearbox. I think it's the engine just shut off and it feels, or he lost hydraulics because he had no gears, nothing, no clutch to pull or anything. Just eight laps for the Kiwi driver this session. Isaac Hadjar, who found out he'd lost his Monaco podium today after Pierre Gasly's reinstatement, was a little irate with one of his fellow drivers. Why did he do that? Nearly crashed into him. Like, is it a whale? I think he didn't see me or something. Yeah, copy that. We'll have a look at it. So your final Friday standings look like this. Norris top from Russell and Piastri. Then came Leclerc, Antonelli, Verstappen, Lindblad, Borgleto, Hamilton and Hadjar. Hülkenberg was P11 and he was followed by Berman, Lawson, Sainz, Colopinto, Gasly, Ocon, Bottas, Albon, Perez, Alonso and Stroll.