Spectre of Max Verstappen looms over McLaren pair at…

McLaren may have looked dominant in second practice for the Austrian Grand Prix but both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri appeared wary at the prospect of world champion Max Verstappen hunting them down.

Norris sat out FP1 at the Red Bull Ring as Alex Dunne stepped in but he returned to set the pace in FP2, just ahead of team-mate and championship leader Piastri – who he crashed into during the Canadian Grand Prix last time out.

Having immediately taken the blame for the accident, Norris was back on song in the Styrian mountains with Verstappen third in FP2 and Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin the only other challenger to get within half a second of the McLarens.

But it is Verstappen, who seems to get the best out of his Red Bull at almost any given opportunity, that the Papaya pair fear could give them more of a headache going into FP3 and qualifying.

“I think the car felt good from the off,” said Norris. “We just need to understand if we want more of that tomorrow or a little bit less or somewhere in the middle. Good steps in the right direction but a little bit more to come hopefully. I think as a team we seemed a bit more competitive. I think we definitely didn't look that good this morning.

“So we did move things in the right direction. As always, where we are very quick in FP2 at times, we've showed a bit more pace than some of the others. So I certainly think they're going to catch up and Max is not far behind, and they normally improve a lot heading into Saturday.

Lando Norris, McLaren (Photo by: Andy Hone / LAT Images via Getty Images)

“I expect a good day tomorrow and I'm sure we'll improve on some things but it's not as easy as maybe it looked today. I think this is still going to be tight tomorrow. It always is, there's no reason for it not to be but we'll work hard to make it as big of a gap as possible.”

Piastri leads the drivers standings by 22 points and has won five races so far this season – but the Australian echoed the sentiment of his team-mate when asked if Verstappen and George Russell, who won in Canada and was fastest in FP1 in Spielberg, could threaten.

“It looked pretty good. Max is still close. So I think he'll be definitely a threat this weekend, but the car is feeling good. I think the pace is quite good. So positive first day,” Piastri said.

“I think Max is definitely going to be in there. George, I'm not sure. I think Mercedes looked very quick in FP1, but FP2 not quite as strong.”

The two McLaren cars were once again driving with a different spec, the suspension upgrades that Norris had in Canada remained on the Briton’s car, while Piastri once again opted for the older version.

“There's some other bits and pieces,” Piastri said when asked about upgrades in Austria.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren (Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images)

“I'm not using the bits that came in Canada because they're not an upgrade. They're just different. So all the parts that we think will make the car faster are on both cars.”

Despite crashing out in Montreal having run behind Piastri for much of the weekend, Norris was pleased with the feel of his version of the MCL39.

“I'll just say yes, but I need to see with the team,” he replied when asked if the updates had worked.

“I don't know. We're doing different tests between cars as always when we have new parts on the car. I'm sure things have all moved in the right direction. How much and the quantity of things is hard to know, but I'll see with the team later.”