Antonelli tops both Austrian GP practice sessions for Mercedes
NXTbets Pro | Published On: June 26, 2026
Antonelli leads Friday
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli set the pace in both Austrian Grand Prix practice sessions and gave the team the fastest start at the Red Bull Ring. He opened the day by topping first practice with a lap of 1:07.796, then backed it up by leading second practice as well. Mercedes also locked out the top two places in FP1, with George Russell just 0.040 seconds behind Antonelli. That margin kept the team at the front of the timing sheets and gave Mercedes early control of the session.
Oscar Piastri slotted into third for McLaren in FP1, while Max Verstappen took fourth for Red Bull in its upgraded car. Lewis Hamilton, driving for Ferrari, was fifth and 0.665 seconds off Antonelli’s pace. The order at the top of the field showed how close the front runners were once the first runs settled down, but Antonelli still held the edge. Mercedes got the cleaner result, with both of its cars inside the top two and both drivers showing strong one-lap speed on the opening day of practice.
FP1 also carried a few interruptions that changed the rhythm of the session. Lando Norris lost most of the practice time after McLaren found a hydraulics leak on his car, which cut short his running and kept him from joining the early fight at the sharp end. The session then ended under a late red flag after Sergio Perez stopped on track. Antonelli still emerged from the stoppages with the best lap, and Mercedes left the opening session with the clearest pace in hand.
McLaren fights back
Antonelli kept that form in second practice and again finished ahead of the McLaren pair. He led Oscar Piastri by 0.237 seconds and beat Lando Norris by 0.325 seconds. That mattered after Norris’ limited track time in FP1, because McLaren needed a cleaner run in the afternoon to gather more data and compare its changes. Piastri gave the team a solid benchmark in third, while Norris recovered enough to put his car back in the leading group once the session settled into longer runs.
Russell ended FP2 in sixth after a lap that left him more than six-tenths off the pace. That was a different picture from FP1, where he had matched Antonelli closely enough to make Mercedes 1-2. The shift in the afternoon left Antonelli as the standout Mercedes runner on the day. His second fast lap showed that the first practice result was no one-off and that he could carry speed through both sessions.
Verstappen stayed in the fight for Red Bull and finished fourth in FP2. Hamilton was fifth again for Ferrari, which kept him just outside the leading trio in both sessions. The repeated names near the front pointed to a familiar mix of pace from Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari, with Antonelli setting the standard on both runs. McLaren still had useful speed in the car, but the lost time for Norris in the morning changed the shape of its opening day.
Ferrari and Red Bull
Ferrari used the weekend to evaluate its new engine upgrade and earlier aerodynamic changes, and Hamilton’s two sessions gave the team a solid place to measure that work. He finished fifth in FP1 and repeated that result in FP2, which kept Ferrari in the upper part of the timing sheets without reaching the front of the order. That made the team’s practice run useful for comparison, because the same driver stayed near the same position while the car changes were tested against the rest of the field.
Red Bull also had work to do beyond the headline time sheet. Verstappen’s fourth-place runs in both sessions showed steady pace in the upgraded car, and the team remained in touch with the leaders while it gathered data. McLaren joined that development effort too. The team tested a rear-wing upgrade during practice, then abandoned the test for a later race. That left the McLaren drivers to focus on the rest of the weekend package rather than pushing the new part through the full session plan.
The first day at the Red Bull Ring gave several teams useful answers, but Antonelli delivered the clearest one. He topped both sessions, kept Mercedes at the front and beat a field that included McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari. Russell gave Mercedes a strong opening in FP1, then the afternoon belonged to Antonelli again. The result put him in control of the practice narrative and set the benchmark for the rest of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.
