Kimi Antonelli completed a dominant Friday for Mercedes at the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix by topping the second practice session of the weekend.
Fernando Alonso hit trouble before the start of FP2 for the F1 Spanish GP, as a clutch issue on his AMR26 relegated him to the garage before the start of the session. At the green light, the world’s most expensive car queue formed in the pit lane as the cars headed out on track.
After the borderline extreme caution applied by the drivers in FP1, the question remained over how hard the drivers would push in FP2. The opening laps seemed to give an answer, with Mercedes and Ferrari quickly setting the pac in the 1:35 region.
With ten minutes gone, George Russell led from his teammate Kimi Antonelli, with Lewis Hamilton third and Arvid Lindblad a surprise fourth. McLaren’s pace seemed to show no signs of improving, with Oscar Piastri down in sixth, and Lando Norris relegated to his garage after complaining about issues with the downshifts of his car. McLaren confirmed shortly after that Norris required a gearbox change, with no certainty he would make it back out before the end of the session.
Multiple drivers began to push, with Oliver Bearman lightly touching the wall, though was able to continue, as the session reached the halfway mark. Mercedes continued to lead, with Antonelli out in front, just 0.099s ahead of Russell as a lull descended over the circuit. Home hero Alonso took to the circuit with just over thirty minutes remaining, but his effort was only good enough for P20.
Arvid Lindblad becomes first to crash at F1 Spanish GP
Track evolution continued to ramp up as the circuit delivered more grip with more running, and lap times kept tumbling. Most of the top ten fitted soft tyres, leading to yet more push laps, with Mercedes and Ferrari once again holding the advantage.
Yuki Tsunoda saw red as he encountered Hamilton exiting La Monumental, Hamilton pulling alongside the Racing Bulls to apologise. As a result, his soft tyre run remained 0.149s behind Antonelli, Leclerc within touching distance in third.
But a Red Flag deployment for the stricken Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad who lost control at Turn 12, sending him hurtling into the barriers. He walked away but the session delay proved costly.
When the season resumed, drivers and teams had less than 15 minutes before on-track action for the day ended. As a result, everyone queued in the pit lane to get out. Drivers pushed, but no one else found the barriers, although Hulkenberg had a lucky escape after running wide.
The top order remained unchanged in the closing minutes, with Antonelli leading the Ferraris, Lindblad and Russell. Norris failed to get back out on track despite McLaren’s best efforts. Leclerc enjoyed an unexpected tussle with Sergio Perez’s Cadillac, but he and teammate Bottas remained in the lower order, joined by both Aston Martins and Alex Albon.
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