ANTONELLI FASTEST IN AUSTRIA FP2 AS FERRARI STRUGGLES
Kimi Antonelli was the fastest driver in Free Practice 2 in Austria, finishing ahead of both McLaren cars by around two tenths of a second. Oscar Piastri was second, with Lando Norris in third. Max Verstappen took fourth place, while George Russell had a quiet session and finished sixth.
Ferrari did not look particularly competitive and appeared to be the fourth fastest team. Lewis Hamilton was the faster of the two Ferrari drivers in fifth place, while Charles Leclerc finished eighth. Overall, Ferrari looked stable but lacked pace compared to Mercedes and McLaren.
The session started with green light at Spielberg under hot conditions, with air temperature at 32°C and track temperature reaching 50°C. These conditions increased the stress on the cars and power units. Early on, Nico Hulkenberg was first on track, while Charles Leclerc returned to driving the Ferrari after missing FP1.
Lando Norris set the early pace after spending most of FP1 in the garage due to a hydraulic problem. Pierre Gasly briefly went fastest, but Norris soon improved. A Virtual Safety Car was triggered after Sergio Perez stopped on track, bringing all drivers back to the pits for a short period.
After the restart, the times improved quickly. Antonelli moved to the top with a strong lap of 1:07.657. There were also issues for other drivers, including Valtteri Bottas, whose car showed signs of a suspension problem and sparks from the rear before his session ended early.
On soft tyres, Piastri briefly took the lead, but Antonelli improved again to go fastest. Norris also moved up the order, while Russell finished half a second behind his teammate. Verstappen ended the qualifying simulations in fourth place, about half a second off the pace.
In race simulations, Verstappen’s pace matched Mercedes, while McLaren started strong but showed tyre degradation in the final laps. Russell ran with a more closed engine cover setup during long runs. Ferrari’s race pace was about one second slower on average compared to Mercedes.
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