Kimi Antonelli was fastest in the second practice for the Belgian Grand Prix; the Mercedes driver set a 45.944, putting himself just under two tenths faster than Lando Norris. The Italian goes into the weekend looking to bounce back after losing out in recent rounds when their challengers have started to close in, setting his fastest time on the soft tyres.
Antonelli appeared to struggle to find his usual pace during FP1, but when it came to the late afternoon session at Spa, he rediscovered his consistency to go ahead of Norris. The Mercedes driver’s fastest time was enough to put him comfortably ahead of the world champion, who has a ten-place grid penalty for the Grand Prix on Sunday. Max Verstappen put his Red Bull third, going three and three-quarters of a tenth faster than Lewis Hamilton.
Antonelli, meanwhile, started the weekend as if he were determined to turn around the decline in his fortunes, in which teammate George Russell has cut his championship lead from sixty-eight points to twenty-five over the last three races. The championship gap has closed largely because of problems for Antonelli, who retired from second place in Barcelona and lost a probable victory at Silverstone last time out by a wheel fairing failure and then a penalty, which dropped him out of the points.
Antonelli confirmed after the session that Mercedes had made “big changes” between Friday’s sessions, which enabled him to find more pace. Antonelli said. “We made big changes with the car, and it was a lot better, so that’s a good direction. Of course, there’s still a lot of work to do, as a team and as well with my driving, but it was a much better session, and I’m now looking forward to tomorrow.”
Verstappen had topped FP1, but the four-time champion was almost half a second down on Antonelli in third amid some furious complaints on team radio over his car’s gear shifts. The Dutchman has, throughout the first half of the season, repeatedly struggled with gearshifts on his Red Bull, but the pace is encouraging for Red Bull. Hamilton, meanwhile, managed to split the Red Bulls; he was just over a quarter of a second behind Verstappen and ahead of Isack Hadjar by a quarter of a tenth.
Oscar Piastri was sixth, the Melbournian two tenths behind Hadjar and nearly a second off the outright pace set by Antonelli as he went a quarter of a tenth faster than Franco Colapinto. While Russell appeared to struggle to get his tyres working, leaving him a second and a quarter off his teammate. He complained, “Rears [tyres] felt too cold, sliding a lot… But not 1.2 seconds cold.”
Russell was eighth as he went just over half a tenth ahead of the Racing Bulls, with Arvid Lindblad nearly a tenth and a half ahead of Liam Lawson. Charles Leclerc was eleventh, the Ferrari driver missing out on the top ten by three and a half hundredths as he went three tenths faster than Ollie Bearman.
Racing Bulls had an upgrade on Lindblad’s car this weekend. The team decided to give it to the Briton rather than Lawson, after an agreement that the driver who qualified ahead at Silverstone would have the new parts for Spa.
Gabriel Bortoleto split the Haas’s, the Brazilian put his Audi over a tenth and a half behind the Englishman as he edged out Esteban Ocon by six thousandths. Alex Albon was over a quarter of a second faster than Williams teammate Carlos Sainz, with the second Audi of Nico Hulkenberg three-quarters of a tenth further behind.
Pierre Gasly had a huge crash after losing the rear of his Alpine in the final fifteen minutes at Fagnes; he clipped the wall, leading to him going into the wall. The drivers only able to return to the track with two minutes remaining to perform practice starts.
That was the second red flag of the session after there had earlier been a short delay to clear gravel from the track after it had been whipped onto the circuit by a car running wide. Gasly was almost a quarter of a second faster than backmarkers Cadillac and Aston Martin.
Valtteri Bottas four-tenths ahead of his Cadillac teammate Sergio Perez, the duo providing more evidence that they have overtaken Aston Martin. The Silverstone-based team has always produced some of the best results in its various names at Spa, but Lance Stroll was a second and a half behind as he went a quarter of a second ahead of Fernando Alonso
