FP2: Antonelli tops the times from Norris in second practice at Sao Paulo GP

Kimi Antonelli ended Friday’s running at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix as the driver to beat, setting the best lap of the day to edge out Lando Norris and Max Verstappen in the second hour of practice.

After a number of teams fielded a rookie driver during FP1, it was back to business as usual with all 22 full-time racers set to take to the track, although the gloomy weather conditions remained in place.

That lack of running for Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, and Valtteri Bottas meant that it didn’t take long for the action to get underway when the session began at 1600 local time.

The Alpine man was the first to complete a flying lap on the hard tyres, posting a 1m 14.165s before Leclerc went six-tenths quicker on the grippier medium compound, followed by Antonelli’s 1m 11.857s effort which took the times closer to those set in FP1.

Soon after, Isack Hadjar suggested that it was beginning to drizzle and Leclerc reported feeling an issue with his brakes, with his team mate Lewis Hamilton facing different struggles as he locked up heading into Turn 1.

Elsewhere, there was bad news in the Audi garage – Hulkenberg hadn’t yet ventured onto the circuit, and it was confirmed that he wouldn’t run at all whilst the team worked on the problems that had cut Freddie Slater’s FP1 short.

As the majority joined him in the pits to prepare for the next stage of their respective programmes, Hadjar was left with clear air and made the most of the soft tyres to improve to second place on the timesheets, albeit still behind Antonelli on the hards.

With 35 minutes remaining, George Russell led the pack back out and cut his time down by nearly eight-tenths to surge into P1 with a 1m 11.036s, which rapidly became third once Norris and Verstappen had completed their efforts.

Just 0.020s separated the trio, but Antonelli lowered the benchmark even further and became the first to break into the 1m 10s bracket. As Leclerc tried to edge towards the Italian's lap, he was caught out by Haas’ Rafael Camara on the main straight and was forced to veer towards the wall, losing a chunk of time.

His race engineer confirmed that the incident had added two-tenths to his final lap, worsening Ferrari’s pre-existing deficit to Mercedes that also stood at two-tenths and left him P7.

The focus then switched to long runs, consolidating Antonelli’s hold at the top of the times as he ended the session with a 1m 10.763s. Over two-tenths behind, Norris, Verstappen and Russell maintained their small margins to one another, with Oscar Piastri only slightly further back in the second McLaren.

An unhappy Hamilton was sixth after his tyre-related woes continued, leaving him ahead of Leclerc, home hero Gabriel Bortoleto, Hadjar and Ollie Bearman in the lead Haas.

Franco Colapinto wound up P11 from Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson, his Alpine team mate Gasly, Fernando Alonso and newcomer Camara.

Coming to the end of the order, Carlos Sainz took P17 for Willliams to clear Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Alex Albon (Williams), Cadillac’s Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, and Hulkenberg, who failed to set a lap time.