Norris tops FP2 ahead of Piastri and Perez

Lando Norris claimed all five wins in Friday's practice sessions for the British Grand Prix, beating his McLaren Formula 1 team-mate Oscar Piastri by 0.331s in second practice.

Norris clocked 1m26.549s on the soft tyres midway through the session to take the lead ahead of Saturday's qualifying, dethroning Piastri, who briefly held the fastest time.

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Max Verstappen set the fastest lap of the opening stint of 1m 27.831s amid a flurry of laps on the medium tyres within the opening 10 minutes.

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton got here near a run on the medium tyres, but neither managed to get below the 88-second barrier within the opening laps.

Verstappen got off to an early start on the soft tyres, setting a time of 1m27.233s, although Carlos Sainz finished just 0.523s behind his former Toro Rosso team-mate on the medium tyres.

Russell gained more time on the medium tyres, getting inside three-tenths of Verstappen before the soft tyre runs began in the center a part of the session – it became increasingly obvious that Verstappen was running out of sync with everyone else.

Verstappen's time was pushed out of the lead by Charles Leclerc, who saved his Ferrari from a violent break at Maggotts/Becketts and briefly remained fastest, before the Monegasque was edged out by Nico Hulkenberg with a time of 1m26.990s, the primary of the weekend to go under 1m26s, who in turn handed his position to Oscar Piastri.

Piastri posted a time of 1m26.880s, but this was overshadowed by Norris’ time of 1m26.549, who got here out on top because the soft tyre runs drew to a detailed.

This coincided with a radio announcement that rain was expected in the ultimate 5-10 minutes of the session, prompting a change to tyres that will allow for long runs in preparation for the Grand Prix.

The time sheets remained almost unchanged, which saw Norris lead each Friday sessions and keep Piastri in second place overall; nonetheless, with five minutes to go within the race, rain began to fall at Silverstone, discouraging teams from continuing with the long timed runs.

Although a number of drivers later took to the Intermediate tyres to check the track in moderately damp conditions, this mustn’t have had a significant impact on the starting order.

Sergio Perez, who sat out FP1 at hand over to Isaac Hadjar, was among the many last drivers to set a lap on the soft tyres and shot up the sphere to 3rd. That moved Hulkenberg down a position, while Leclerc accomplished the highest five, 0.6s ahead of leader Norris and half a tenth ahead of Hamilton.

Verstappen's early poor time saw him finish seventh, with Sainz, Lance Stroll and George Russell completing the highest ten.