Mercedes-AMG Petronas Bounces Back in Belgian GP Practice; Antonelli Tops FP2
Kimi Antonelli led the timesheets in FP2 for the Belgian Grand Prix after a difficult FP1, while teammate George Russell struggled for pace.
- 1:45.944 by Kimi Antonelli
- 1:47.229
- P6
What Happened
The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team had a mixed Friday at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix. In FP1, both Kimi Antonelli and George Russell struggled with car balance, ending the session in P6 and P8 respectively. However, significant setup changes between sessions led to a strong improvement in FP2, with Antonelli topping the timesheets with a lap of 1:45.944. Russell remained in P8 after a single soft-tyre run that was not representative of his potential.
1:45.944seconds
Topped the timesheets in FP2
1:47.229seconds
P8, with only one soft-tyre attempt
“After a tricky FP1, we made several changes to the car that improved things. That gives us a positive direction to follow as we head into the rest of the weekend. There is still lots of work for us to do, both in terms of set-up and also with my driving.”
“We haven’t had the smoothest Friday here in Spa. We overestimated the grip levels in FP1 and that meant our starting set-up wasn’t in the right place. We struggled with a difficult car balance and, whilst we were able to complete some learning, it wasn’t the ideal way to start our weekend.”
“There was less grip than we were expecting in FP1 and that meant the car was under-winged during that first hour. The drivers were fighting a tricky balance and thus didn’t have the confidence in the car to extract the lap time. The changes we made between the sessions did their job and the car was in a much happier place come FP2.”
Previously from Mercedes-Benz
The team entered the Belgian Grand Prix weekend after a mixed performance at the previous round in Barcelona, where they introduced several upgrades. In their preview for that race, Team Principal Toto Wolff noted the challenge of Barcelona's layout. Today's practice results show the team working through balance issues but showing signs of improvement.
Background drawn from MotorClaw's earlier coverage of Mercedes-Benz's official releases.
Why this matters
The Mercedes team showed they can recover from a challenging start and improve car balance between sessions, which is crucial for a competitive weekend. Both drivers and the team are optimistic about race pace, but the field remains tight, meaning final positions are uncertain.
Terms in This Story
- FP1
- Free Practice 1 – the first practice session of a Formula 1 weekend, used to test car setup and tire behavior.
- FP2
- Free Practice 2 – the second practice session, often used for qualifying simulations and long-run evaluations.
- Long run
- A series of laps run in practice to simulate race conditions and assess tire degradation and race pace.
- Red flag
- A signal that stops a session due to a track obstruction or safety concern, pausing all running.
Summarised from the linked release; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.