Norris Tops Friday Practice at 2025 Austrian GP

McLaren’s Lando Norris topped Friday Practice for 2025 Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, Austria. 

Norris sat out FP1 to allow FP1 rookie, Alex Dunne to take his seat which saw the Irish driver produce an impressive performance, before the Brit jumped back into his car in FP2 and proceeded to top the session from his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri.

Mercedes’ George Russell topped FP1 but track position in FP2 saw him slip to sixth in a competitive field with barely one second separating much of the grid.

 

FP1

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was first on track ahead of McLaren FP1 debut rookie, Dunne followed by Esteban Ocon and Ferrari’s FP1 driver, Dino Beganovic who took Charles Leclerc’s seat for the session.

Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Russell however soon set the pace amidst a brief scrap with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, but Russell on the hard tyre soon proceeded to dominate as he lowered the benchmark time to 1m 06.139 in the 15th minute.

Russell soon switched to the soft tyre for an early Qualifying simulation and eventually set 1m 05.542 on his second soft-tyre flier, which nobody beat as Max Verstappen fell 0.065 seconds shy.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was 0.155s off the pace in third just ahead of Dunne who steadily worked through his programme and adapted quickly to the car, which saw him ultimately finish fourth quickest and just 0.069s off Piastri on his first official F1 outing.

Williams’ Carlos Sainz was the sole driver to not set his best lap time on the soft tyre, as his eighth-placed time instead was achieved on the medium tyre.

Beganovic meanwhile finished 18th but just 0.270s off Hamilton’s best lap time in the Ferrari in a solid session for the Swede.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	George Russell	Mercedes	1m 05.542
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.065
3	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 0.155
4	Alex Dunne	McLaren	+ 0.224
5	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 0.238
6	Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber	+ 0.332
7	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 0.404
8	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+ 0.475
9	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrai	+ 0.557
10	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls	+ 0.568
11	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+ 0.588
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	+ 0.598
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 0.618
14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 0.628
15	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+ 0.647
16	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 0.704
17	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull	+ 0.720
18	Dino Beganovic	Ferrari	+ 0.827
19	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 0.968
20	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 1.196

 

FP2

Colapinto and Ocon were first on track but Mercedes quickly put a stamp on the top of the timesheets with Antonelli fastest on 1m 06.202 from Russell on the medium tyres.

Piastri then displaced the Italian with 1m 06.129 on the hard tyre in the seventh minute before Norris posted 1m 05.905 to head Russell, which he soon lowered to 1m 05.437 in the 15th minute as Verstappen fell 0.217s slower on the soft tyre.

Shortly afterwards, everyone switched focus to the soft-tyre Qualifying simulation which saw Russell find more time on his second flier to go top with 1m 05.229 in the 27th minute.

McLaren however responded two minutes later as Piastri first displaced Russell before Norris posted a session-topping 1m 04.580 to go quickest from his teammate.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1m 04.580
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 0.157
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.318
4	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 0.442
5	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.610
6	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.649
7	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull	+ 0.712
8	Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber	+ 0.831
9	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 0.877
10	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+ 0.931
11	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+ 0.957
12	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+ 0.963
13	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls	+ 0.967
14	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 1.033
15	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 1.118
16	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 1.185
17	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+ 1.234
18	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 1.255
19	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	+ 1.338
20	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 1.596