Antonelli leads a finely balanced Brazilian GP practice

Kimi Antonelli put the mark of a new world champion on Friday practice at the São Paulo Grand Prix, finishing ahead of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen in a session shaped by cool conditions and a tightly packed order. The result was a strong statement from the Mercedes driver, but the tiny gaps behind him offered no sign of a settled pecking order.

At Interlagos, Antonelli’s best lap came as the field shifted towards soft tyres. He had already led the early running on hard tyres, despite struggling with heavy bottoming on the bumpy circuit. His authority across both phases matters more than the final classification alone: the champion was quick before the soft-tyre runs and quickest again when the pace sharpened.

Antonelli carried his title-winning form into Friday

Antonelli’s 1m11.8s on hard tyres put him at the front early. After a quieter spell, teams began running the soft compound, and the times came down rapidly. George Russell went quickest with a 1m11.016s, then Norris and Verstappen moved ahead of him. Antonelli’s later 1m10.763s was enough to reclaim the lead and break below the 1m11s mark.

That performance followed his title-clinching weekend in Mexico. Antonelli became Formula 1’s youngest-ever world champion there, making Brazil his first event since securing the championship. The records behind Antonelli’s 2026 title provide a broader view of that achievement; in Brazil, the immediate evidence was pace on track. His lead in both the early hard-tyre phase and the later soft-tyre order gave Mercedes a useful opening read, even as the conditions made comparisons less straightforward.

The gaps behind Mercedes were remarkably small

Norris took second in the upgraded McLaren, setting 1m11.016s. Verstappen was only 0.006s slower, while Russell and Oscar Piastri also finished within a tenth of Norris. The top five therefore consisted of four drivers separated by very little, with Antonelli the one who managed to create a clearer margin at the front.

That compression is the session’s central competitive signal. Antonelli finished fastest, but the small differences among Norris, Verstappen, Russell and Piastri leave room for the order to change. Practice positions are a snapshot, not a verdict, and Friday’s cool, overcast conditions complicate any simple reading of the times. Still, McLaren’s revised car was immediately in the leading group: Norris was second with a new front wing fitted to the MCL40.

The earlier report on Antonelli’s FP2 pace offers another point of comparison for his session-leading form, while Brazil’s result sets up a close contest among several teams rather than a one-car story.

Russell’s pace comes with a weekend complication

Russell’s 1m11.016s briefly put him at the top before Norris, Verstappen and Antonelli displaced him. He ended the session fourth, close to the leading group, but his weekend carries a separate constraint: he has a five-place grid penalty for taking a new engine. That penalty does not change what his lap showed about Mercedes’ pace in practice, but it makes his starting position an important part of the wider picture.

The report on Russell’s Brazilian GP grid penalty adds context to a result that might otherwise look straightforward. He was fast enough to challenge near the front, yet the penalty means that pace has a different strategic value for him than for drivers without the same grid setback.

Cooler weather affected confidence and tyre preparation

Rain appeared only intermittently, with light drops not persisting. The day had been forecast to be the clearest of a weekend affected by rain, but the overcast sky and cooler temperatures still influenced the session. Lewis Hamilton reported difficulty getting tyre temperatures up, and several drivers locked their front-left wheels approaching Turn 1.

Those details point to a session in which extracting grip was not automatic. A quick lap depended not only on the car’s underlying speed but also on bringing the tyres into the right condition. The São Paulo weekend weather outlook is relevant to that backdrop, although the running described here was not persistently wet. The Interlagos circuit map provides a track-focused companion to the practice report, while the session itself showed how the cooler conditions were already affecting driver confidence.

Ferrari had a quieter opening than expected

Ferrari did not match the leading pace in a session where it was described as often starting Fridays strongly. Hamilton went quickest in the first sector but finished sixth, with Charles Leclerc seventh. Leclerc complained that he had been impeded on the straight by Haas debutant Rafael Camara, an interruption that offers one immediate explanation for frustration, though not enough to account for Ferrari’s overall position by itself.

Hamilton’s tyre-temperature concern also underlines why the classification should be read with care. The session exposed a challenge in getting the tyres working in the cool conditions, but the available results do not establish how much that affected Ferrari relative to its rivals. For now, sixth and seventh make for a muted start rather than a firm conclusion about the team’s weekend.

Bortoleto and Camara brought local interest to the order

Home driver Gabriel Bortoleto placed eighth for Audi, ahead of Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman, who completed the top ten. His position gave the Brazilian crowd a driver near the front of the midfield, while the session also marked a significant step for Camara. The Haas driver finished 16th, half a second behind his team-mate, after completing his first full day as a grand prix driver in place of the ousted Esteban Ocon.

Camara’s appearance connects naturally with the wider rookie picture at the São Paulo GP. His FP2 result was behind his team-mate, and Leclerc’s complaint showed that his presence was noticed in the traffic. Those are the concrete points from this session; the longer-term meaning of the debut will depend on what follows.

Audi’s second car remained absent from the running

Nico Hülkenberg stayed in the garage after undisclosed issues had affected Freddie Slater, who stood in during FP1, earlier on Friday. That left Audi’s practice picture incomplete: Bortoleto completed a competitive session at home, while Hülkenberg did not add further track evidence in FP2.

The contrast matters when judging the team’s eighth-place result. Bortoleto’s position is encouraging on its own, but the session cannot provide a full comparison between Audi’s drivers when one remained in the garage. The same caution applies across the field: a single practice classification combines different running circumstances, tyre phases and interruptions.

Friday points to a close fight, not a settled hierarchy

Antonelli leaves FP2 with the fastest time and the clearest headline, but the margin behind him is what makes the session especially useful. Norris, Verstappen, Russell and Piastri were tightly grouped, McLaren’s front-wing update began its weekend with Norris in second, and Ferrari had work to do after a subdued opening.

The conditions also left open questions over tyre preparation, while Russell’s penalty and Hülkenberg’s garage time complicate the picture for their respective teams. Antonelli’s pace is the strongest signal so far, but Friday has not established who can sustain it. The Brazilian weekend begins with a champion on top—and a leading pack close enough to keep the contest unresolved.