Kimi Antonelli was fastest in second practice for the Spanish Grand Prix; the Mercedes driver set a 33.662 to put himself just over a tenth faster than Charles Leclerc. Antonelli goes into the weekend as the growing favourite for the championship; his nearest rival, Lewis Hamilton, was third, over three hundredths further behind.
The Italian set the fastest lap around the halfway mark in the second one-hour session as drivers and teams gradually kept chipping away at their set-ups on the extremely difficult circuit in Madrid. But it looks close between Mercedes and Ferrari ahead of the first qualifying in Madrid since 1981.
Antonelli, fresh from his stunning and historic home win from nineteenth five days ago, heads into the weekend with a sixty-six-point lead over teammate George Russell, who had to settle for fifth over three tenths off. Arvid Lindblad surprised by putting his Racing Bull amongst the top teams, fourth over a tenth faster than Russell.
However, the Englishman’s session ended just as the race runs started about halfway through the session; he lost the rear “super early” and hit the rear against the wall at Turn Thirteen, bringing out a twenty-minute red flag. He highlighted one of the challenges of this hybrid, tricky and high-speed circuit as drivers began to push. Russell looked to struggle to optimise his setup as he went six hundredths faster than Max Verstappen.
While there were several crashes and red flags in F2 and F3 practice and qualifying, the F1 drivers showed their excellence to avoid any major incidents in first practice, but it was Lindblad who came unstuck just beyond the halfway point of FP2.
Verstappen was over a tenth behind the sister Racing Bull, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri a tenth and three hundredths behind. Yuki Tsunoda put his Racing Bull a tenth ahead of Esteban Ocon, the Japanese driver the first to lap a second off the pace.
Tsunoda is again filling in for Liam Lawson, who is still standing in for Isack Hadjar following his wrist injury over the summer, with Lawson completing the top ten seven hundredths behind the Racing Bull. Pierre Gasly missed out on the top ten by two hundredths, last weekend’s pole sitter a tenth ahead of the Audi duo of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoletto.
Ollie Bearman put his Haas nearly seven tenths ahead of Franco Colapinto, followed by the two Spaniards. Carlos Sainz, starting his first home race, being born in Madrid, put his Williams four tenths ahead of Fernando Alonso. The Aston Martin was nearly half a second ahead of Alex Albon, after he had a delayed start to the session as Aston Martin repaired a clutch issue.
Sergio Perez was almost eight hundredths faster than Lance Stroll, as the Canadian split the two Cadillacs as he went four and a half tenths faster than Valtteri Bottas.
Lando Norris’s afternoon came to an end after two laps, the world champion on the sidelines with a gearbox failure. That is unlikely to incur penalties at this stage of the season given the race power unit, and gearboxes aren’t fitted until Friday night.
While Norris has generally been quicker than Piastri recently, losing an entire session at a new circuit will put the Brit on the back foot going into Saturday. McLaren were expected to be in the mix after two wins in three and a competitive Monza, but he showed little signs of repeating that.
