Mercedes' Antonelli tops Friday practice in Austria

Kimi Antonelli leads Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship by 41 points

Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli headed McLaren's Oscar Piastri in Friday practice at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Antonelli, who leads Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton by 41 points in the world championship, was 0.237 seconds clear of Australian Piastri.

The second McLaren of world champion Lando Norris was third fastest, ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen, with Hamilton in fifth. the second Mercedes of George Russell in sixth position.

McLaren also looked competitive on race pace. with Norris mixing it with the Mercedes for the best pace on the long runs late in the session.

Russell, the only Mercedes driver to speak to the media on Friday, said: "It was a real surprise to see the first lap of the McLarens in P2 right at the top. their race pace, especially on Lando's side, looked a bit better than us."

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Norris missed most of the first session because of a hydraulic leak,. Piastri ended it third behind the Mercedes, just 0.117secs off Antonelli's fastest time.

But Piastri cautioned that Antonelli probably had more potential than was obvious from the headline times. as his fastest lap in the second session was set on his second attempt on his set of soft tyres, when they would have been past their best.

Piastri said: "We are a step behind Mercedes, or at least Kimi, which we expected. For Kimi to do that kind of time on his second lap on the soft is quite impressive."

And McLaren technical director applied engineering Neil Houldey said: "The Mercedes,. especially Kimi are going to be very difficult to beat."

Ferrari have an engine upgrade for this weekend that they hope will reduce their power deficit to Mercedes to follow on from the aerodynamic developments introduced in Barcelona two weeks ago. whenHamilton took his first win for the team.

But they had a low-key day, not yet showing the pace that led to Hamilton's landmark victory.

Hamilton was 0.597secs off the pace,. team-mate Charles Leclerc a further 0.244secs adrift in eight place, behind the second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar.

Mercedes suspected Ferrari were running their new engine conservatively and would be in the fight at the front come qualifying.

But Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur downplayed the effect of the upgrade, given it is being introduced only two weeks or so after governing body the FIA confirmed the team would be permitted to change the engine under the additional development. upgrade opportunities (Aduo) programme.

"It was a tough Friday that we struggled a little. with the conditions, a bit extreme, the altitude, the temperature," Vasseur said.

"It is the same for everyone but it is not suiting very well to us.

"We have the night to correct to put everything together and let's try to do a better job on Saturday. So far we are far away from our potential.

"We knew about Aduo two weeks ago, you cannot expect to have a huge step forward. It is a new engine for sure but it is not a decent step."

Ferrari are second in the constructors' standings, 72 points behind leaders Mercedes

Russell was lacking pace over one lap - 0.623secs off team-mate Antonelli -. was on pace on the race-simulation runs.

Red Bull have a major upgrade on their car this weekend. Verstappen was 0.55secs off the pace, he and team-mate Hadjar complaining of a lack of grip.

Hadjar said: "It's not a completely different car. It feels like the usual. We still have work to do to catch up.

"For some reason we were quite slow to get started, the car comes alive sometimes in qualifying. We need to get it sorted because it's quite tough.

"We are struggling with grip. It's a speed range we've been good at so to have this behaviour from the car, I don't understand."

At the back. there was a difficult day Cadillac continued when Sergio Perez stopped early on with the same electronics problems he had in the first session, while team-mate Valtteri Bottas had to abandon the session halfway through with sparks flying from the underside of the car.