Andrea Kimi Antonelli made the perfect start to the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix weekend by topping both of Friday’s practice sessions.
F1 championship leader Antonelli was fastest by 0.237 seconds from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, while reigning world champion Lando Norris took third, 0.325s down on the pace-setting Mercedes.
It completed an impressive start to the opening day of action at Spielberg for Antonelli, who is looking to bounce back after suffering a late retirement at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix last time out.
It was a tougher second practice for his Mercedes team-mate George Russell, who was only sixth-fastest and over six tenths down after a scruffy lap on soft tyres.
Max Verstappen put his upgraded Red Bull fourth, 0.550s adrift of Antonelli’s benchmark time, and ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who was fifth for Ferrari, nearly six tenths down.
Behind Russell came the other Red Bull of Isack Hadjar and Charles Leclerc, who returned to the cockpit of his Ferrari after sitting out of FP1 so that Dino Beganovic could complete a mandatory rookie outing.
Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto rounded out the top-10 for Racing Bulls and Audi respectively.
It was another dramatic session for Cadillac, with Sergio Perez losing power and stopping on track for the second time on Friday, following a similar problem which saw the Mexican break down in FP1.
Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas’s car caught fire after he dragged a damaged suspension back to the pits. The Cadillac pair subsequently ended up 21st and 22nd on a weekend the American outfit has introduced a substantial upgrade package.
McLaren abandoned plans to test its experimental rear wing during Friday practice after concluding that further preparation work was required.
As such, McLaren is not expected to run its version of the ‘upside-down’ rear wing during the remainder of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.
The reigning world champions will instead continue to prepare and develop the item for introduction at a later event.
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Originally published by Crash.net —
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