Max Verstappen and Lando Norris Tie as Oscar Piastri Dominates Spain

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris finished Friday practice for the Spanish Grand Prix tied on time, both clocking a 1:13.070 around the Circuit de Catalunya. Verstappen secured the higher spot on the timesheet since he set the lap first, but neither could match the pace of Oscar Piastri.

The McLaren driver posted a lap of 1:12.760, edging out his competitors by over three-tenths of a second. Piastri was the only driver to dip below the 73-second barrier, showing clear speed as the race weekend began.

George Russell from Mercedes also demonstrated strong pace, slotting between Verstappen and Norris with a time just 0.024 seconds clear of Verstappen. However, Russell still trailed Piastri by 0.286 seconds.

The hot conditions during the session kept the air temperature steady at 30 degrees and the track at 45 degrees Celsius, putting extra stress on the tires.

Norris started the session by topping the soft-tyre times with his 1:13.718, but Russell took the lead on medium tyres before teams switched plans to gather more data on the soft compound.

When Pirelli’s soft tyres came into play, Russell was the first to show improvement with a 1:13.046. Verstappen and Norris soon matched each other’s pace, but neither could overtake Russell until Piastri found additional speed late in the session.

His 1:12.760 lap went unbeaten as teams moved focus to longer runs over the closing 20 minutes. Norris finished the session fourth, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc managed to slip ahead of Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli into fifth.

Leclerc’s teammate Lewis Hamilton had a tougher time, describing his Ferrari as “not driveable” and finishing 11th, 0.773 seconds behind Piastri.

Elsewhere in the field, Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin and Pierre Gasly for Alpine finished ahead of the Racing Bulls pair, Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson.

The session’s tight margins meant the top 14 drivers were separated by under one second, with Williams’ Carlos Sainz rounding out that group. At the back, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto posted the slowest time for the fifth consecutive practice session.

He ended up 1.543 seconds behind Piastri, just behind Haas driver Oliver Bearman, whose session was disrupted by a spin into the gravel. Bearman managed only a limited number of laps due to the incident.

The results hint at a competitive weekend ahead, with Piastri looking strong and both Verstappen and Norris closely matched. Attention will now turn to how the teams adapt for Saturday qualifying as they chase improvements and hope to close the gap to the fastest lap set by McLaren’s Australian star.