Strategy

2026 Austrian GP FP2: Antonelli sweeps Friday as Cadillac endure nightmare session

Answer

Confirmed

Kimi Antonelli topped FP2 at the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix with a 1:07.014, completing a Friday sweep for Mercedes. Oscar Piastri was second (+0.237s) and Lando Norris third (+0.325s) for a strong McLaren showing. Verstappen was fourth (+0.550s), Hamilton fifth. Cadillac suffered a Virtual Safety Car and a car fire. Practice pace is indicative, not predictive of qualifying or race results.

Session overview

Kimi Antonelli finished fastest during Friday afternoon's second practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix. The drivers returned to the track at 17:00 local time, anticipating marginally cooler temperatures at the Spielberg circuit.

It is the first time any driver has completed the Friday double in the 2026 season. ^[1]

Track conditions remained punishing, with the surface still at 48 degrees Celsius when FP2 began, and tyre degradation already a major concern for Sunday's race. ^[7]

Top-ten classification

The full official classification from Free Practice 2:^[2]

Pos	Driver	Team	Best Lap	Gap
1	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	1:07.014	,
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:07.251	+0.237s
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:07.339	+0.325s
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:07.564	+0.550s
5	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	1:07.611	+0.597s
6	George Russell	Mercedes	1:07.637	+0.623s
7	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull	1:07.758	+0.744s
8	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:07.855	+0.841s
9	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	1:08.235	+1.221s
10	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	1:08.300	+1.286s

Pierre Gasly narrowly missed out in P11, from Arvid Lindblad, Oliver Bearman, Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon. Franco Colapinto was half a second adrift of his Alpine team-mate's time in P16, leading the Williams pair of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. ^[1]

Session narrative

It was McLaren's Norris who initially set the pace on the medium compound tyres, posting a 1:08.000 to edge out his team-mate by two tenths. ^[1] A Virtual Safety Car was triggered 10 minutes into the session after Perez stopped on track, despite having his ECU changed following his FP1 struggles. ^[10]

The stoppage proved convenient for Max Verstappen, who had complained about the comfort of his seat and used the break to climb out of the car and have it readjusted. ^[1]

On the soft tyre runs, McLaren continued to impress as Piastri momentarily posted the fastest lap before Antonelli charged back to the head of the timesheets by a few hundredths of a second. The Italian ultimately prevailed as he cut his time down even further to end Friday's running on top, with no one able to match his best effort of 1:07.014. ^[1] His pace through the final corners was particularly strong, giving him a clear advantage at one of the shortest laps on the calendar. The teenager finished more than two tenths ahead of Piastri, a significant margin around the Red Bull Ring, and looked at ease on both lower fuel and longer run programmes. ^[7]

George Russell had pushed Antonelli hard in FP1, finishing just 0.040 seconds behind, but FP2 was less convincing for the Briton. He ended up sixth, 0.623 seconds away from his team-mate, after a messy soft tyre lap left him unable to match the pace at the front. ^[7]

Among those heading out in FP2 were the six who vacated their seats in FP1 for rookies, including Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who had made way for academy driver Dino Beganovic as the team sought to optimise their latest power unit upgrade. ^[1] Leclerc, back in his SF-26, could only manage eighth and was the slowest driver from the leading four teams. ^[8]

Incidents and disruptions

After replacing Sergio Perez's Engine Control Unit between sessions following his earlier mechanical failure, the Mexican again suffered problems when he pulled off the circuit at Turn 6. His stranded car triggered a brief Virtual Safety Car while marshals recovered the Cadillac. ^[9]

With Perez back in the garage, Valtteri Bottas slowly trailed around much of the lap, sparks flying from his floor as it seemingly dragged along the track and back to the pit lane. After reporting smoke in the cockpit, Bottas' floor was extinguished after a small fire broke out, which reignited even after the team put it out for the first time. Mechanics were on hand to control the issue; that was the end of the Finn's session. ^[2] Cadillac chief technical officer Nick Chester described the Bottas issue as "a build issue." ^[6]

Cadillac ended up at the bottom of the leaderboard as neither Bottas nor Perez were able to head back out after their respective car troubles, leaving them with lots of work to do before the final practice session. ^[1]

Norris and Colapinto both tested the limits during free running: Colapinto ran wide and onto the gravel at Turn 6, with Norris locking up and pulling a 180-degree spin on the entry to Turn 3. ^[2] Norris recovered from that Turn 3 moment without major damage. ^[7]

Alex Albon also reported having "no power" on his first exploratory lap, with Williams taking his car back into the garage for a look and repair. ^[10]

Red Bull's Turn 3 problem

Both Red Bull drivers struggled with a drop of engine RPM in Turn 3, which led to unusual handling characteristics at the uphill right-hander. ^[5] That left Hadjar 0.121 seconds behind seventh-placed George Russell, as both Red Bull drivers consistently wrestled with the RPM drop at Turn 3. ^[3] The picture of how successful Red Bull's upgrade has been was clouded by a number of issues (unrelated to the upgrade) that cost both Verstappen and Hadjar valuable track time. Neither driver was particularly happy aboard the RB22 on Friday, particularly at the Turn 3 right-hander at the top of the hill. ^[6]

Long-run and race-pace picture

With hotter conditions expected across the rest of the weekend, tyre life remains a major question. Teams spent the final part of FP2 on longer runs, with degradation likely to decide whether Sunday's race becomes a one, two or even three-stop contest. ^[7]

During the long-run phase, the top teams were running between the 1:10s and 1:11s bracket. Verstappen's race pace looked encouraging on those opening medium-tyre laps, sticking in the 1:10s, while the Ferraris appeared to be in the 1:11s. ^[5]

What mattered more was long runs, and Hamilton's average put him behind the Mercedes and McLaren; only in the ballpark of Verstappen. However, rivals noted that GPS data appeared to show Ferrari not showing its hand on the straights, which could indicate the power unit had not been turned up to maximum output yet. ^[6]

Pirelli noted that at Spielberg the softest compounds in the range (C3, C4, C5) are used, and that degradation is mainly thermal in origin at this circuit. ^[11] Last year most teams completed the race with two pit stops; with the greater consistency of the current tyres, a stronger trend towards a one-stop strategy could be expected. ^[11]

:::analysis Mercedes' one-two on Friday's pace chart flatters their position only slightly. Antonelli's margin over the McLarens was 0.237 seconds to Piastri and 0.325 seconds to Norris; these are meaningful gaps on a 4.318 km lap, but both figures were set on a single hot lap under unrepresentative fuel loads. McLaren's recovery from a disrupted FP1 (Norris lost most of that session to a suspected hydraulics problem) is the more significant data point: both cars now look genuinely competitive across their tyre performance window.

Ferrari's apparent lack of pace in the long runs is hard to read given the GPS anomaly flagged by rivals. The Scuderia went from a quiet Barcelona Friday to a race victory on Sunday; direct lap-time extrapolation from Austrian practice to race outcome carries obvious risk.

Red Bull's Turn 3 RPM issue is a specific, identifiable problem that the team will attempt to solve overnight. Whether Saturday's FP3 and qualifying reveal its true upgrade step remains to be seen. Practice pace is indicative, not predictive of qualifying or race results. :::