Max Verstappen and Lando Norris dead-heat but Oscar Piastri holds sway in Spain

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris finished Friday practice tied on time, but it was Oscar Piastri who holds the advantage going into this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

Red Bull's four-time F1 champion Verstappen and McLaren rival Norris posted identical 1:13.070s around Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, with the former ahead on the timesheet as he was the first of the duo to set that time.

However, they were both left trailing McLaren's championship leader Piastri by 0.310s. The Australian was the only driver to dip below 73 seconds for a lap across the two hour-long runs, posting a leading 1:12.760s.

Verstappen and Norris were only third and fourth respectively, however, as Mercedes' George Russell suggested he could also be a threat, nipping ahead of the former by 0.024s, albeit 0.286s adrift of Piastri.

Verstappen, in particular, though, can feel satisfied with his day's work. Recent Fridays have proven worrying for the Dutchman who has often bemoaned various unfavourable aspects of his RB21 before he and his team have salvaged a rescue act on Saturday.

On this occasion, little was heard over the radio from Verstappen, indicating that the expectation his car would suit this circuit is so far proving accurate.

Hamilton hit with 'not driveable' Ferrari

Across FP2, the high temperatures from earlier in the day continued, with air remaining a constant 30 degrees centigrade, whilst the track was 45, punishing the tyres.

Over the early medium-tyre runs to start the session, with Norris' 1:13.718s on the soft tyres the benchmark from the opening session, it was no surprise that inside the first 15 minutes of FP2, that time was topped.

It appeared as if Norris would lead the way initially, ahead of the teams switching to their planning to gather soft-tyre data, as the Briton posted a time just under a tenth of a second quicker.

It was Russell, though, who had the final say on Pirelli's yellow-striped rubber with a 1:13.501s. Verstappen was third quickest, over a quarter of a second behind Norris, with Piastri fourth.

Once the softs were bolted on, Russell was the first driver to set the pace, opening up with a 1:13.046, almost half a second up on his medium-tyre time, with team-mate Kimi Antonelli 0.252s adrift.

Verstappen moved to within 0.024s of Russell, setting a time soon matched by Norris despite a purple first sector.

Up until that point, Piastri had endured a low-key Friday before finally finding his mojo to set a time that remained unbeatable to the end, albeit with the teams naturally switching back to the mediums for the long runs over the final 20 to 25 minutes.

Behind fourth-placed Norris, and edging ahead of Antonelli, was Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari. As for team-mate Lewis Hamilton, he described his car as "not driveable" en route to posting only the 11th quickest time, 0.773 adrift of Piastri.

In between the two Scuderia stars were Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly in his Alpine, and the on-song Racing Bulls duo of Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson.

Overall, the top 14 were covered by less than a second, with William's Carlos Sainz the last of those.

Alpine's Franco Colapinto has now finished slowest in the last five practice sessions. The caveat is that Colapinto was 19th in Monaco FP1 a week ago but only because Aston Martin's Lance Stroll managed four laps due to an early incident in which the Canadian was hit by Leclerc.

Colapinto finished 1.543s behind Piastri, and almost two-tenths of a second behind 19th-placed Oliver Bearman in his Haas, and whose session was truncated by a spin and run across the gravel around 15 minutes in.