Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Oscar Piastri led Lando Norris to a McLaren one-two in Friday practice at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

The Australian, leading the world championship from Norris by 16 points after four wins in the first six races, headed Norris in both sessions, and ended the day 0.025 seconds quicker.

Alpine's Pierre Gasly was a surprise third quickest, ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell, Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

Lewis Hamilton, struggling with braking feel, was 11th fastest in the second Ferrari.

Read the full report here

The McLarens are looking strong at the first race of the European leg of the season but can anyone else sneak a surprise in qualifying tomorrow? With overtaking a hard task to master at the Imola circuit, now would be a great time for someone to secure a shock pole position.

We'll be back on Saturday at 11:15 BST to take you through third practice. Then it's all eyes on qualifying, which starts at 15:00.

Enjoy your Friday night and we'll see you tomorrow!

Have a listen to the Chequered Flag podcast as Eleanor Oldroyd, Jennie Gow and former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley preview this weekend's race in Imola.

The team discuss the title battle between Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, while hearing from championship leader Piastri. Lewis Hamilton speaks about whether Ferrari will be able to turn their poor form around on home soil, plus we talk Kimi Antonelli, rookies and Franco Colapinto.

Marc Priestley
Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Image source, Getty Images

I think a few people might start looking closely at Pierre Gasly. He has a very decent, genuine amount of pace. There's a good scenario here where you can get into great position on the grid and sacrifice a huge amount of race pace and the normal tendency to try look after tyres just to be able to get your position right on a Saturday and just defend like crazy on a Sunday. This is one of the race tracks you can do that, it doesn't always make for great racing, but teams don't care about that, they care about the finishing position.

Andrew Benson is here and ready to answer any questions you may have this weekend.

You can send them through to us at any time, day or night, by using the link here.

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11. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)

12. Oliver Bearman (Haas)

13. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)

14. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

15. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)

16. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)

17. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

18. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)

19. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)

20. Esteban Ocon (Haas)

Marc Priestley
Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

There's a lot pace in that Mercedes car, it's just about unlocking it. It'll be interesting to see if the pressure gets to Kimi [Antonelli]. I saw a video released by Mercedes and Toto Wolff, who is not here this weekend, sent a message to the two drivers and told Kimi that he's going to have an almost unimaginable amount of pressure on him with the home support.

1. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 1:15.293

2. Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.025

3. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +0.276

4. George Russell (Mercedes) +0.400

5. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.442

6. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.475

7. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.499

8. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) +0.534

9. Alex Albon (Williams) +0.623

10. Carlos Sainz (Williams) +0.641

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have headed out on a set of the soft compound and are joined by the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda.

Three minutes left of FP2published at 16:58 British Summer Time

16:58 BST

Just like in first practice, a late red flag has disrupted a session. Oscar Piastri is sitting at the top of the timesheets too, 0.025 seconds ahead of his team-mate Lando Norris.

Cars are lining up to get out for the last few moments on track.

Postpublished at 16:56 British Summer Time

16:56 BST

The Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar was twitching over the kerbs before his car was sent into a spin at Tamburello. The marshals are on the scene to help the young Frenchman and guide him back to the paddock.

Hadjar looking for a gappublished at 16:54 British Summer Time

16:54 BST

There seems to be no good opportunity for Isack Hadjar to rejoin the action. He finally gets the go ahead but suddenly, he's caught in a wheel spin, so out comes the red flag.

Yellow flagpublished at 16:53 British Summer Time

16:53 BST

Isack Hadjar if off on to the gravel at Tamburello. The Racing Bulls driver manages to get his car out of danger but now he's trying to rejoin the track.

Franco Colapinto is getting some early race action in before Sunday's main grand prix. The Argentine is battling with the McLaren of Lando Norris as the Briton tries to take the Alpine driver down the inside but Colapinto stands his ground and stays ahead.

Next up for the 21-year-old is a Red Bull - he's racing like there's 60-plus laps left on the board.

As the cars pootle around the circuit gathering all-important data, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc are lapping in the 1:19s, while the majority of the field are around the 1:20s.

Home driver Kimi Antonelli comes across a slow-moving Yuki Tsunoda in the Red Bull and not for the first time today, we hear a driver say they nearly crashed. Thankfully, Antonelli is able to shift his Mercedes quickly out of the way.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Max Verstappen spent last Friday at the Nurburgring Nordschleife driving a Ferrari 296 GT3 car, and on Thursday at Imola he spoke about it for the first time. Verstappen used a fake name, Franz Hermann, so that he could delay people finding out about him being there. "I knew that once I was there, people would realise that it's me. But at least I wasn't on the entry list name."

And he confirmed that he had broken the GT3 lap record, of seven minutes 49.5 seconds, although he did not say how fast he went.

"I'm not there to show that I can break a lap record or whatever record,” he said. “I was just having fun and learning the track."

The Nordschleife is regarded as probably the most demanding circuit ever built, but Verstappen said he had done thousands of laps of the track on the simulator before doing there.

"For me, when I got there in real life, it was more knowing the grip level, the new Tarmac in places, and then the grip level of the car. And of course a few barriers here and there modified a bit. The most important is that you know exactly where you're going. And that I knew already."

He was there to help his Emil Frey team prepare for a future attempt at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, and gain some experience for a theoretical title at the race himself at some point in the future.

"They weren't there before, so for them also the dream is to do 24 hours there. Yeah, we just had a good time getting up to speed. We were lucky with the conditions as well. It was really nice and sunny. So that's great if you can have that."

The medium tyres are starting to reappear now, as we settle in for some long-run action. How Alpine will perform in race trim is unknown, just like the rest of the grid, but I'm going to put my early 50p bet on Pierre Gasly securing a good spot for Sunday's grand prix in qualifying tomorrow.

If he gets the boot in Q1 I'll be really annoyed.

"Guys we need to work on the entry of Turn Five, Nine and 11. It's critical, I would say."

The Scuderia fans won't be too happy to see Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton running outside of the top five. Leclerc is the higher of the two drivers in sixth place with a time 0.475 seconds off the pace of McLaren's Oscar Piastri. Hamilton is further down the pecking order in 11th spot.

Leclerc calls in to the pit wall and tells his engineer there's work to do for the team on the entry of Turns Five, Nine and 11. "It's critical, I would say," he adds.

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