Lando Norris takes control in Austrian 'comfort' as Lewis Hamilton faces investigation

Lando Norris shrugged off missing first practice for the Austrian Grand Prix by comfortably topping the second session in his bid to put behind him his moment of madness in Canada.

Norris handed over his McLaren at the Red Bull Ring to allow development driver Alex Dunne a runout, and the 19-year-old Irishman did not disappoint by setting the fourth fastest time in the opening hour.

After looking on, Norris returned to the cockpit of his MCL39 to post a leading lap of 1:04.580s, finishing 0.157s quicker than team-mate Oscar Piastri, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen three-tenths of a second off the pace in third.

It is a circuit at which Verstappen has excelled in the past, scoring five poles and five wins, although from pole last year, he had to settle for fifth following a late-race collision with Norris.

The Briton is also looking to atone for what unfolded in Montreal 12 days ago when he ran into the back of Piastri in the closing laps, forcing him into retirement, and leaving him 22 points adrift of the Australian in the drivers' standings.

Norris assumes control

A mix of hard and medium tyres were used by the drivers in the opening 25 minutes, with the exception of Verstappen, who was the last on track after waiting 14 minutes and emerging on the softs.

By that stage, Norris had wasted no time in making up for missing FP1 in favour of Dunne, who had stunned on his F1 debut by finishing 0.224s behind pacesetter George Russell in his Mercedes, and 0.069s behind Piastri.

On mediums, and around a circuit where Norris had remarked on media Thursday he found to be his most comfortable to drive, it showed as he relentlessly improved lap by lap, ultimately posting a leading time on the mediums of 1:05.437s.

On softs, Verstappen immediately slotted in behind Norris by 0.116s, following which there were a few skirmishes.

Initially, Charles Leclerc, who had also sat out FP1, with Ferrari Academy driver Dino Beganovic enjoying a runout, hurtled off track on the approach to Turn 5, trekking across the gravel and grass before returning to the track and onto the garage.

Soon after, Kimi Antonelli was forced to go off track to avoid running into the back of Hamilton on the approach to Turn 4. The seven-time F1 champion faces an investigation by the race stewards for impeding.

Moments later, Verstappen was caught by surprise when Norris flew by at speed to his left-hand side up the hill on the approach to the Turn 2 kink, when the obvious line, and where there was considerably more space, was to the Dutchman's right.

Considering Norris wrecked his Canadian GP hopes 12 days previously by going to the left of Piastri when there was no room, it was an unusual move for the Briton to make, but he got away with it on this occasion.

Norris soon followed up by posting what proved to be the best lap of the session with his 1:04.580s, just a quarter of a second shy of last year's pole position from Verstappen, who set strong long-run pace over the closing 20 minutes to suggest the four-time F1 champion will be in contention on Sunday.

Behind the leading trio, there was the surprising figure of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll, followed by Leclerc, Russel, and Yuki Tsunoda in his Red Bull.

Stake's Gabriel Bortoleto was eighth quickest, 0,831s behind Norris, followed by Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin, and Hamilton 10th. Antonelli was marginally behind Hamilton, with Liam Lawson 12th for Racing Bulls.

On his opening outlap, the New Zealander complained of the car severely pulling to his right, which team boss Laurent Mekies said was a result of set-up changes not taking effect.

Alpine's Franco Colapinto was slowest, finishing 1.596s off the pace.