Norris tops second practice in Abu Dhabi ahead of Verstappen

McLaren driver Lando Norris set the pace during Friday's second practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, leading the way from Red Bull rival Max Verstappen and Mercedes' George Russell, with team mate Oscar Piastri back in 11th.

Norris got down to a time of 1m 23.083s with Pirelli's soft tyres across the one hour of running, putting him 0.363s ahead of reigning four-time World Champion Verstappen, and a further 0.016s clear of Russell.

After nine 'rookie' drivers appeared in FP1, a stream of regular racers returned to the cockpit for the much more representative twilight FP2, including Piastri, who was the only championship contender to sit on the sidelines at the start of the day.

Despite mechanics making a host of adjustments to his McLaren just a few minutes before the session's green light at 1700 local time, the Australian hit the track early on and got his practice programme under way without any dramas.

There was some early drama elsewhere, though, with Verstappen having to hurriedly get out of Norris' way exiting Turn 1 via some confusion over the radio with his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase - the Red Bull driver ending a lap and the McLaren man starting one.