Lando Norris left his legion of fans dreaming of a home win after lapping up his rivals in second practice for the British Grand Prix.
It may only have been race Friday, when teams experiment with tyres and race plans, but the sight of McLaren driver Norris a third of a second ahead of his nearest rival (who happened to be his own team-mate Oscar Piastri) will warm the hearts of those eager to see their hero take a win on Sunday.
With the MCL38 sporting a new rear wing designed for low-downforce circuits like Silverstone, the early signs are that it looks to be a potent weapon, with Piastri at least second quickest, albeit 0.331s behind.
For once, Sergio Perez had the advantage over Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen as the Mexican was third on the timesheets, albeit 0.434s off the pace. That will be a bit of a tonic for Perez after sitting out FP1 for junior driver Isack Hadjar.
As for Verstappen, he had to settle for his initial time on soft tyres of 1m27.233s, seven-tenths behind Norris, after making a rare minor mistake by going off track at Copse on his second outing, forcing him to abort.
Nico Hulkenberg managed to set the fourth fastest lap, suggesting the raft of improvements to his Haas was having an effect. In contrast, his team-mate Kevin Magnussen remained 1.573s behind the leader, although he too went off track at one point.
After the first few laps on the medium compound during the opening 15 minutes, Verstappen held a lead over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc of 0.253 seconds with a lap of 1m27.831s, with Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes and Carlos Sainz for the Scuderia both setting the same time, just 0.017s further behind.
With the threat of rain in the air, Verstappen was first to switch to the Pirelli softs – his first stint of the day on those tyres after opting not to use them in FP1 – with his 1m27.233s bettering Norris’ leading time from first practice by almost two-tenths.
It was the catalyst for others to follow suit, with Sainz finishing just 0.016s off the pace and ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll by just 0.026s before Hulkenberg became the first driver to dip below 87 seconds per lap with a 1m26.990s.
Hulkenberg’s time in front was brief, however, as Piastri quickly edged out the German by 0.110 seconds.
Norris then unleashed his McLaren on his first outing on soft tyres in FP2 and punctuated all three sectors to set what turned out to be the leading time of 1m26.549s, a third of a second quicker than Piastri.
Like Verstappen, none of the Mercedes drivers used soft tyres in FP1. While Hamilton’s final sector was strong, he was off the pace in the first and second sectors and finished 0.653s behind Norris, leaving him sixth behind Leclerc. Russell was a tenth of a second behind Sainz and Stroll.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso led the bottom half of the standings, just over eight-tenths off the pace.
With five minutes to go, the predicted rain arrived, although that did not prevent several last-minute practice sessions from being held.
