F1 Barcelona Grand Prix: FP2 Results and Report with Lando Norris on Top

Qualifying simulation laps bred instability for most cars on the grid. Namely, the front wing seemed to require several adjustments for teams and drivers, including Norris and Hamilton.

That said, this is actually the first practice for several of our leaders, including Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris, and Lewis Hamilton, who were replaced by reserve drivers for laps out during Free Practice 1 earlier in the day.

Even so, two of the drivers were not able to put in representative laps during the session – Bottas never exited the garage with technical issues, and Lawson's car stopped on pit exit with a gearbox issue.

In the end, this looks like Barcelona is a weekend that could go to McLaren and disrupt Mercedes' dominant run with Lando Norris topping the times and Oscar just behind in 3rd.

Mercedes Still Expected to Dominate

Do not let the results of Free Practice 2 fool you – McLaren may have found some pace heading into Barcelona, but Mercedes always seems to find something heading into Qualifying on Saturday.

Where the eyes should be shifting is Ferrari in 4th and 9th, respectively. Having brought essentially a new car with eight upgrades, their pace still seems to be the same compared to Mercedes.

Effectively, it seemed that Hamilton, who did not run in Free Practice 1, was struggling with the updated front wing and seemed to take an older iteration of the wing mid-session. Considering he was over a second off the pace, it brings into question the efficacy of their upgrades.

Another notable point of the session was that tire degradation was a massive issue for drivers up and down the grid - even Mercedes and McLaren. Barcelona is a traditionally high-deg circuit, but the rate seemed especially high during the session.

Generally, with the wide breadth of upgrades brought by many of the teams (not just Ferrari), the grid seems to have found a general range of pace that is competitive. The top 16 drivers were separated by under 2 seconds.

Meanwhile, after Williams and Cadillac's technical issues throughout the day and Aston Martin's standard pace issues, coupled with Lance Stroll's near crash, all six drivers were found far off the pace at three to four seconds back.

F1 Barcelona Grand Prix 2026: FP2 Results

Positions	Driver / Team	Gap[s]
1.	Lando Norris / McLaren	1:15.426
2.	George Russell / Mercedes	+0.009
3.	Oscar Piastri / McLaren	+0.057
4.	Charles Leclerc / Ferrari	+0.373
5.	Kimi Antonelli / Mercedes	+0.589
6.	Max Verstappen / Red Bull	+0.895
7.	Arvid Lindblad / Racing Bulls	+0.985
8.	Gabriel Bortoleto / Audi	+1.185
9.	Lewis Hamilton / Ferrari	+1.205
10.	Isack Hadjar / Racing Bulls	+1.248
11.	Nico Hulkenberg / Audi	+1.508
12.	Ollie Bearman / Haas	+1.519
13.	Liam Lawson / Racing Bulls	+1.541
14.	Carlos Sainz / Willaims	+1.594
15.	Franco Colapinto / Alpine	+1.625
16.	Pierre Gasly / Alpine	+1.834
17.	Esteban Ocon / Haas	+2.112
18.	Valtteri Bottas / Cadillac	+2.799
19.	Alex Albon / Williams	+3.364
20.	Sergio Perez / Cadillac	+3.835
21.	Fernando Alonso / Aston Martin	+3.860
22.	Lance Stroll / Aston Martin	+4.033

F1 will return in Barcelona tomorrow with Free Practice 3 and Qualifying, with many teams likely making adjustments overnight to stabilize their cars.

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