Antonelli tops both practice sessions to dominate Austrian GP Friday for Mercedes

Kimi Antonelli capped a dominant Friday at the Austrian Grand Prix by topping second practice at the Red Bull Ring, extending his earlier FP1 benchmark to complete a clean sweep of the day’s running for Mercedes.

The championship leader posted a 1m07.014s on soft tyres to finish 0.237s clear of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who set a 1m07.251s, with Lando Norris a further 0.088s back in third. Lewis Hamilton was fifth for Mercedes on a 1m07.611s, sandwiched by Max Verstappen in fourth at 1m07.564s.

The session was disrupted early by a cluster of reliability problems in the extreme heat — track temperatures reached 49°C — that shaped the opening exchanges. Alex Albon reported a loss of power in his Williams, Arvid Lindblad encountered trouble with his VCARB 03, and Sergio Perez was forced to stop at Turn 6 after his Cadillac overheated, triggering a brief virtual safety car.

Once the circuit settled, Antonelli was the first driver to improve on his own FP1 benchmark of 1m07.796s, posting a 1m07.657s on medium tyres. Piastri then briefly took top spot during the qualifying simulation runs on softs before Antonelli responded with a 1m07.209s. With 20 minutes remaining, the Italian improved again to his final time of 1m07.014s — a lap that went unbeaten as teams switched back to harder compounds for the long-run phase.

George Russell had a difficult afternoon by comparison, managing only sixth on a 1m07.637s, with each lap appearing a struggle for the Mercedes title contender. Isack Hadjar was seventh, 0.121s behind Russell, with the Red Bull junior — like team-mate Verstappen — repeatedly losing engine RPM at Turn 3.

Charles Leclerc was eighth for Ferrari, 0.841s off the pace, while Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto rounded out the top 10. McLaren will take encouragement from its top-three presence after suffering reliability issues of its own in FP1.