To the surprise of absolutely no one, McLaren is looking rapid.
A half a second gap to the field in FP2 is reminiscent of Red Bull at the peak of its domination and coming at a track where it has historically struggled, all points to this being a very good weekend indeed for the papaya cars.
Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull look to be in the same ballpark, albeit only with one driver in the case of the latter two teams.
Lewis Hamilton was over half a second slower than Charles Leclerc in the sister Ferrari, while Yuki Tsunoda ended the session seven-tenths back from Max Verstappen, slumping to 18th overall in the timesheets.
This is already feeling like McLaren’s weekend to lose. I’m sure post-session the team will downplay that, and probably through to qualifying tomorrow.
But come the race, there’ll be nowhere to hide — especially if its two title-chasing drivers push each other on.
A very tantalizing prospect indeed.
