Lando Norris put McLaren on top in second practice for Formula 1’s 2025 British Grand Prix, as Ferrari’s strong early Silverstone form continued and Max Verstappen again struggled with the handling of his Red Bull.
After narrowly topping FP1 from the two McLarens, Lewis Hamilton carried that strong form into FP2 - taking turns with Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc to head the times early on, before finishing the medium-tyre baseline performance runs 0.295s clear of Leclerc.
The Ferraris were both fast on the soft compound too, but it was Norris who produced the first sub-1m26s lap of the weekend to top the qualifying simulations, 0.222s clear of Leclerc with Hamilton third.
Both Ferraris set their fastest laps after Norris did, but that benefit of track improvement was offset against them both doing so having already done a performance run on that same set of tyres.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri was fourth fastest in the second McLaren, 0.47s down on Norris, while Verstappen languished in ninth on the medium tyre but managed to haul his understeering Red Bull up to fifth with a second flying lap on the softs, just under half a second down on Norris.
That’s a worrying deficit for Red Bull, allowing for the usual caveats of engine modes and fuel levels, but Verstappen’s race run on the medium tyre looked relatively more competitive with Norris and Leclerc.
The Mercedes drivers were early onto their performance runs and finished up sixth and eighth, with rookie Kimi Antonelli 0.15s faster than George Russell.
They were split by the upgraded Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, who put the new floor trialled on Fernando Alonso’s car in FP1 to good use by lapping seventh quickest, just 0.047s down on Antonelli.
The Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson rounded out the top 10, separated by exactly a tenth of a second.
Hadjar was top-four fast early on using the medium tyre, and his similarly timed performance run on the soft was only 0.001s down on Russell’s Mercedes.
FP2 results
1 Lando Norris (McLaren) 1m25.816s
2 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.222s
3 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.301s
4 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.470s
5 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.498s
6 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.567s
7 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +0.614s
8 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.707s
9 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.708s
10 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +0.808s
11 Alex Albon (Williams) +1.024s
12 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +1.060s
13 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +1.088s
14 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.125s
15 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) +1.164s
16 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +1.343s
17 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +1.349s
18 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1.358s
19 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +1.410s
20 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +1.473s
