World champions McLaren outpace championship leaders Mercedes on the opening day in Spain; Ferrari and Red Bull both with work to do to find more pace; watch final practice at 11.30am on Saturday followed by Qualifying at 3pm live on Sky Sports F1
After struggling badly for pace against their front-running rivals last week on the slow-speed streets of Monaco, McLaren looked a far more competitive force around the high-speed sweeps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday.
And it was world champion Norris, in his one session of the day on track, who was fastest of all in the second session thanks to a best lap of 1:15.426 on the soft tyres.
Norris pipped Mercedes’ Russell – who had set the pace in first practice – by 0.009s with Oscar Piastri just 0.057s behind in the second McLaren.
“McLaren will be really encouraged,” said Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok of the reigning world champions.
“Norris was right up there on race pace too, matching Russell lap for lap.”
McLaren and Mercedes enjoyed a clear short-run pace edge over Ferrari and Red Bull – although dominant championship leader Antonelli, the winner of the past five races, finished behind Charles Leclerc in fifth, almost 0.6s off Norris’ pace.
Antonelli, like Norris, sat out the first hour of running after seven teams chose the first session to run rookies as part of their yearly obligations to run inexperienced drivers four times a year.
Lewis Hamilton also sat out first practice although struggled on his return to find sufficient pace in a Ferrari that features eight different upgrades this weekend. He wound up 1.2s off the pace in ninth place, although team-mate Leclerc was just 0.3s back in fourth to offer the hope of progress with the car into Saturday.
Max Verstappen appeared to have a difficult day in his Red Bull, fighting both its handling and tyre wear.
He finished sixth fastest in the second session, almost one second behind Norris, and described his tyres as feeling “horrendous” late on in the session on a long run amid sweltering track temperatures and gusty winds in Spain.
Arvid Lindblad was seventh to continue Racing Bulls’ strong run of form, although team-mate Liam Lawson was restricted to just seven laps due to his car stopping with a mechanical problem exiting the pit lane.
The team were at least able to get the car back fix the issue so that Lawson was able to return and complete a handful of laps before the chequered flag fell.
Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto was eighth fastest, while Isack Hadjar was 10th to underline Red Bull’s apparent day-one difficulties.