SAO PAULO — Kimi Antonelli ended Friday’s running at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix as the driver to beat, setting the best lap of the day.
The newly crowned world champion edged Lando Norris and Max Verstappen during 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.
Antonelli ran a best lap of one minute and 10.763 seconds to take the top spot by .253 seconds over Norris’ McLaren.
A winner last week in Mexico City, Verstappen was only .006 seconds behind Norris in his red Bull machine.
George Russell in the second Mercedes and Piastri in the second McLaren completed the top five.
Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were sixth and seventh, respectively.
