Lando Norris ' struggles to get a feel for the 2025 McLaren at the very edge of the envelope, particularly in the top-10 shootout in qualifying, have been one recurring theme over the first half of the season as he is needing to pull out all the stops to battle team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Lance Stroll was the only other driver to get within half a second of the McLaren pacesetters, while Charles Leclerc was fifth for Ferrari having also sat out FP1, who took a trip over the gravel at Turn 6 midway through the session.

Not too long ago, if you told any F1 fan that McLaren would have the dominant car in 2025, they would likely pick Lando Norris as the clear drivers' champ. Yes, we saw cracks in the armor from Norris last year that have seemingly gotten larger this season, but we had yet to see Oscar Piastri do much better.