Kimi Antonelli finished as the fastest on the first day of activities of the Belgian Grand Prix of Formula 1. This Friday (17), in the second free practice at Spa-Francorchamps, the Italian dominated the session, recorded a time of 1min45s944 and was the only one below the 1min46s mark.
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Who was in second position on the table was Lando Norris, 0.190s behind the Mercedes driver. Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Isack Hadjar completed the top five positions of the Belgian activity.
The drivers return to the track for the Belgian GP on Saturday, 18, for the third free practice at 7:30 am Brasília time.
Find out how the second free practice of the Belgian GP of F1 went:
For this second session of the day at Spa-Francorchamps, the weather was slightly cooler with timid sun. The thermometer showed 23ºC and the asphalt reached 33ºC.
Stopwatch started and the first cars were already on the track to take advantage of the first minutes of free practice. Kimi Antonelli, George Russell, Sergio Pérez, Valtteri Bottas were some who left the pits, all on medium tires.
Still in the first moments, Isack Hadjar already came on the radio to say he was using the wrong visor, very dark. Then, the engineer instructed him to finish the installation lap and return to the garage to change it.
The Italian from Mercedes was the first to set a fast lap with 1min46s911, with Charles Leclerc, Russell, Lewis Hamilton, and Alexander Albon completing the top five positions.
With almost ten minutes already run, Oscar Piastri had not yet gone to the track even for the installation lap. The reason is that the Australian had problems with the car still in TL1 and McLaren was racing against the clock to solve the issue.
There were just over 47 minutes left to end the session and a red flag was necessary. The reason was the amount of gravel on the track that needed to be removed.
Then, Max Verstappen came on the radio very nervous complaining about the gear change, saying it was very bad and that it was “unbelievable”.
At this moment, three drivers had not yet set any fast lap: Liam Lawson, Nico Hülkenberg, and Piastri.
With 42 minutes, then, pits opened once again. Gradually, the competitors were back on the track, but many were still waiting inside the garages.
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Finally, Oscar Piastri left the McLaren pits for his first laps – Lando Norris was in fifth place with 1min47s376.
Isack Hadjar, on soft tires, took first place with 1min46s714. Antonelli was flying next and about 0.5s faster than the Red Bull Frenchman and when he completed the lap he did 1min45s944, the first below 1min46s.
Halfway through the session and Antonelli leads the pack, with Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Hadjar, and Leclerc completing the top five positions on the table, all on red tires – between first and fifth, more than 1s separated them.
Something impressive to observe is that Aston Martin’s times were only 4s ahead of the Formula 2 pole, recorded in wet conditions due to rain – the duo was 6s behind Antonelli, being closer to F2 than F1.
Another point is how Russell seems off the pace compared to teammate Kimi. Although in race simulation, the Briton is no less than 1.2s behind the Italian.
Approaching the final stretch of the session, teams begin to focus on race simulations to gather data for the race in Spa. At this moment, most drivers were on medium tires.
Then, with just over 14 minutes to the end of the practice, a heavy crash by Pierre Gasly in the sequence of turns 12 and 13 caused a red flag. The Frenchman heavily damaged his car, leaving debris in the middle of the track and stopping in the middle of the circuit. The driver exited the car alone.
The order on the table was Antonelli, Norris, Verstappen, Hamilton, Hadjar, Piastri, Franco Colapinto, Russell, Arvid Lindblad, and Lawson completing the top 10. Bortoleto was 13th.
The practice was restarted with 2 minutes to the checkered flag. One lap would not change anything, but at least they could do the start practice.
Second free practice ended in Belgium and Antonelli was the fastest name in the pack, followed by Norris and Verstappen. In comparison, Russell finished only in eighth position.
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