Kimi Antonelli leads tricky second practice as Arvid Lindblad crashes

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli topped second practice at Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix, pipping Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on Friday afternoon at a hot and challenging Madring circuit.

Antonelli 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.

The 5.4km track, a hybrid of street portions and a purpose-built loop featuring several high-speed corners, proved tricky to tame from the outset. And with runoff virtually non-existent, teams made a conservative start to the weekend in first practice, sacrificing optimal lap time as drivers settled into a rhythm and built up muscle memory.

Some of those training wheels started to come off in FP2, although lap times didn’t take as much of a tumble as first thought, despite the improving grip levels.

Championship leader Antonelli led the early running on medium tyres with a 1m34.428s effort, which was soon beaten by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen as drivers visibly had their hands full both keeping their cars out of the walls and finding clear air through the narrow, concrete-lined roads.

Turn 17’s right-hander proved particularly tricky as several drivers went wide on exit, triggering a track limits offence.

Lando Norris ended the session in the garage with gearbox issues

Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images

Antonelli soon reclaimed the lead with a 1m33.926s lap, with FP1 leading team-mate George Russell within a tenth.

The session went into overdrive at the halfway mark as the majority of drivers switched to the fastest soft-tyre compound, which is proving a handful to keep within optimal temperature ranges as the constant lateral loads are working Pirelli’s rubber extremely hard.

Antonelli set the tone once more, the championship leader stopping the clocks after 1m33.662. Russell didn’t immediately find an answer, with Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc slotting into second and third, and Racing Bull’s Arvid Lindblad an eye-catching fourth.

But shortly thereafter, Lindblad’s day came to a screeching halt as he slid into the barriers in Turn 13, a medium-speed left-hander. Lindblad escaped unharmed as the session was red-flagged with 25 minutes to go, with track marshals rushing to undo the British rookie’s TecPro barrier realignment.

Partly due to the interruption, there were no further moves at the top, confirming Antonelli’s lead ahead of Ferrari duo Leclerc and Hamilton. Behind fourth-placed Lindblad, Russell and Verstappen were fifth and sixth, with Oscar Piastri first of the McLarens in seventh after a difficult day for the reigning world champions.

Piastri’s team-mate, world champion Lando Norris, disappeared into the garage after just two laps with a transmission issue, forcing McLaren to change gearbox.

Arvid Lindblad also had to set out most of the session

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

Yuki Tsunoda, who makes his third appearance of the season as Isack Hadjar continues to recover from his wrist injury, was eighth in the Racing Bulls car, with Haas driver Esteban Ocon and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson completing the top 10.

As expected, it was a quiet start for crowd favourites Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso, finishing 16th and 17th respectively. Alonso faced a delayed start to the session as Aston Martin repaired a clutch issue.

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– The Motorsport.com Team