Practice report

F1 Austrian GP: Kimi Antonelli tops FP2 to complete perfect Friday

The Mercedes championship leader topped both Friday practice sessions at the Red Bull Ring

Formula 1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli completed a perfect Friday at the Austrian Grand Prix by going fastest in second practice.

The Mercedes driver beat McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris with a 1m07.014s after also topping FP1 on an extremely hot day at the Red Bull Ring.

Such heat caused a unique challenge as, although the start of FP2 saw drivers frantically hit the 49C track on either medium or hard rubber, the opening stage was defined by reliability woes.

Alex Albon reported “no power” inside his Williams, Arvid Lindblad had trouble with his VCARB 03, whereas Sergio Perez stopped at Turn 6 due to his Cadillac overheating.

That caused a brief virtual safety car and it was only soon after that Antonelli became the first driver to beat his own FP1 benchmark (1m07.796s) with a 1m07.657s on medium tyres.

But his time would only be the pacesetter temporarily, with qualifying sim runs on the soft tyre kicking in after 30 minutes and Piastri soon toppled Antonelli.

Nico Hulkenberg, Audi F1 Team, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Pierre Gasly, Alpine

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

The McLaren driver set a 1m07.251s, which team-mate Norris and Lewis Hamilton soon respectively got within 0.088s and 0.360s of, before a 1m07.209s put Antonelli top again.

This was where the championship leader started to hit his stride because it was with 20 minutes remaining that he improved again to a 1m07.014s, 0.195s quicker than his previous best lap.

That would subsequently go unbeaten with teams returning to the harder compounds for the final stages, leaving McLaren to complete the top three and bounce back from its reliability woes in FP1.

Best of the rest was fourth-placed Max Verstappen, who was 0.550s off the pace after setting a 1m07.564s late in the soft tyre window ahead of Hamilton (1m07.611s) in fifth.

It was an underwhelming session for Antonelli’s team-mate George Russell, who only mustered sixth on a 1m07.637s with each lap looking a challenge for the Mercedes title hopeful.

That time put the Briton 0.121s faster than seventh-placed Isack Hadjar who, like Red Bull team-mate Verstappen, consistently struggled with a drop of engine RPM at Turn 3.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (+0.841s), Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson (+1.221s) and Audi sophomore Gabriel Bortoleto (+1.286s) respectively completed the top 10.

F1 Austrian GP: FP2 results

All Stats

Cla	Driver	#	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	Tyres	km/h
1	A. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes	12	Mercedes	Mercedes	32	1'07.014		S	232.393
2	O. Piastri McLaren	81	McLaren	Mercedes	32	+0.237 1'07.251	0.237	S	231.574
3	L. Norris McLaren	1	McLaren	Mercedes	32	+0.325 1'07.339	0.088	S	231.271
4	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	3	Red Bull	Red Bull	29	+0.550 1'07.564	0.225	S	230.501
5	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44	Ferrari	Ferrari	33	+0.597 1'07.611	0.047	S	230.341
6	G. Russell Mercedes	63	Mercedes	Mercedes	25	+0.623 1'07.637	0.026	S	230.252
7	I. Hadjar Red Bull Racing	6	Red Bull	Red Bull	28	+0.744 1'07.758	0.121	S	229.841
8	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	Ferrari	Ferrari	35	+0.841 1'07.855	0.097	S	229.512
9	L. Lawson Racing Bulls	30	RB	Red Bull	34	+1.221 1'08.235	0.380	S	228.234
10	G. Bortoleto Audi	5	Audi	Audi	30	+1.286 1'08.300	0.065	S	228.017
11	P. Gasly Alpine	10	Alpine	Mercedes	33	+1.362 1'08.376	0.076	S	227.764
12	A. Lindblad Racing Bulls	41	RB	Red Bull	29	+1.364 1'08.378	0.002	S	227.757
13	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87	Haas	Ferrari	33	+1.518 1'08.532	0.154	S	227.245
14	N. Hulkenberg Audi	27	Audi	Audi	32	+1.545 1'08.559	0.027	S	227.156
15	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31	Haas	Ferrari	33	+1.816 1'08.830	0.271	S	226.261
16	F. Colapinto Alpine	43	Alpine	Mercedes	30	+1.817 1'08.831	0.001	S	226.258
17	A. Albon Williams	23	Williams	Mercedes	34	+1.824 1'08.838	0.007	S	226.235
18	C. Sainz Williams	55	Williams	Mercedes	30	+2.117 1'09.131	0.293	S	225.276
19	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14	Aston Martin	Honda	27	+3.530 1'10.544	1.413	S	220.764
20	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18	Aston Martin	Honda	32	+3.684 1'10.698	0.154	S	220.283
21	V. Bottas Cadillac F1 Team	77	Cadillac	Ferrari	6	+4.293 1'11.307	0.609	M	218.402
22	S. Perez Cadillac F1 Team	11	Cadillac	Ferrari	2
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