Norris topped FP1 before Antonelli answered in FP2, finishing 0.253 seconds clear of the McLaren. Verstappen placed third in both sessions, while Audi’s technical problems left Hülkenberg without a single Friday lap.
Kimi Antonelli found a quarter of a second that nobody else could match. Behind him, three drivers were separated by just two hundredths.
That was the picture at the end of Friday at Interlagos. The newly crowned champion’s 1:10.763 put Mercedes on top, while Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, and George Russell formed a tightly packed group behind.
The longer runs offered another question. Antonelli spent 20 laps testing the durability of his soft tires. Norris pursued a shorter run on a different compound. Their fastest laps established an order; their race preparation left room for interpretation.
McLaren gives Antonelli something to answer
Norris set the first benchmark, leading FP1 with a 1:11.717. Antonelli finished just 0.082 seconds behind, followed by Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Four teams occupied the first four places.
For McLaren, that was an encouraging start to a weekend built around new wings and floor changes. Norris immediately had enough performance to challenge Mercedes, while Oscar Piastri returned from sitting out FP1 to finish fifth in the afternoon.
Antonelli supplied the strongest response when the soft-tire runs began.
Russell initially went fastest with a 1:11.036. Norris beat him by 0.020 seconds, and Verstappen squeezed between them, just 0.006 behind the McLaren.
Then Antonelli became the only driver to break into the 1:10s.
Piastri finished 0.321 seconds behind the Mercedes, putting both McLarens inside the top five as the team gathered its first evidence on the updated package.
Russell was fourth, although his weekend already carries an extra complication: a five-place grid penalty for an internal combustion engine change.
Why the longer runs need a closer look
Antonelli followed his fastest lap with a 20-lap stint on the same set of soft tires used for his qualifying simulation.
That made the run useful for understanding how the compound behaved as the laps accumulated. Norris, meanwhile, ran on the hard tire. Autosport’s live analysis recorded a quicker average for the McLaren, but across only nine laps.
Those are different tests.
The Mercedes was carrying its soft tires much deeper into a stint. Norris’s shorter run provided a smaller window into the McLaren’s performance, on another compound. Fuel loads also remained unknown.
The useful takeaway is that both teams completed meaningful tire work. The averages alone don’t establish which car will be faster over a race distance.
Verstappen stays close while Ferrari searches
Verstappen finished third in both sessions, but his radio messages described a more difficult day than those positions suggest.
In FP1, he called the downshifts “unacceptable” and later reported increasingly heavy steering. Further complaints about the drivetrain and clutch followed in FP2.
He arrived in Brazil having already described unpredictable engine braking in Mexico. Friday added more feedback for Red Bull to investigate, without establishing that the different complaints share one cause.
Ferrari finished the afternoon farther back. Hamilton was sixth, 0.450 seconds behind Antonelli, with Charles Leclerc seventh.
Hamilton struggled to generate tire temperature early in FP2. Leclerc, returning after Dino Beganovic’s disrupted FP1 outing, reported a brake issue before a near-miss with Rafael Câmara interrupted a flying lap on the main straight.
Câmara finished his first full Friday as a Haas race driver in 16th. He and Leclerc were summoned to the stewards over the alleged impeding incident.
Turn 1 also repeatedly caught drivers out. Hamilton, Antonelli, Russell, and Fernando Alonso were among those to lock up or use the runoff during the day, making the approach to the Senna S a recurring problem.
Bortoleto gets two eighths. Hülkenberg gets no laps.
Audi’s Friday produced two very different foundations for the weekend.
Gabriel Bortoleto finished eighth in both sessions, completing a useful day of preparation at his home circuit. Hülkenberg never got onto the track.
Freddie Slater had taken Hülkenberg’s car for FP1, but stopped after seven laps and brought out the red flag. The problems required enough work to prevent Hülkenberg from taking part in FP2.
That leaves the German with Saturday’s final practice session to begin his own assessment of the car.
For a team arriving four points behind Haas, the lost preparation matters. Bortoleto supplied running and feedback; Audi’s other car managed seven laps across the entire Friday program.
