F1 Austrian Grand Prix 2026 Practice Round-Up: Antonelli Leads As McLaren Race Pace Emerges

Kimi Antonelli topped both Friday sessions at the Red Bull Ring, posting a 1:07.796 in FP1 and improving to a 1:07.014 in FP2 to lead the Austrian Grand Prix weekend for Mercedes. The timesheets say Mercedes. The long-run data says something different. McLaren’s Medium race-pace looked stronger once tyre age is factored in, with Norris and Piastri producing competitive heavy-fuel running on older rubber while Antonelli’s faster average came on a fresh set. Verstappen’s Red Bull showed similar depth despite Red Bull flagging driveability concerns at Turn 3. Russell ended FP2 sixth, 0.623s behind his team-mate on a short circuit where that margin is not small. Ferrari remain a partial unknown after Leclerc sat out FP1 entirely. Cadillac lost running in both sessions, Perez’s car stopping twice with what the team confirmed was the same issue each time. A red flag ended FP1. A VSC punctuated FP2. Saturday will tell a cleaner story.

Key Points: F1 Austrian Grand Prix 2026 Practice

• Antonelli fastest in both sessions: 1:07.796 in FP1, 1:07.014 in FP2. Russell 0.040s behind in FP1, 0.623s back in FP2
• McLaren’s Medium long-run pace looked stronger once tyre age is factored in: Antonelli averaged 1:11.265 on fresh rubber, while Norris ran 1:11.642 and Piastri 1:11.926 on older used sets
• Verstappen lost more than 20 minutes in FP1 to anti-stall issues, then produced one of the strongest used-Medium long runs in FP2
• Leclerc absent from FP1 under the mandatory rookie rule, covered by Beganovic. Ferrari’s true Friday picture came in FP2 only
• Perez’s Cadillac stopped twice with the same reported issue, ending both FP1 and his FP2 running early. Bottas had a suspension failure in FP2 with sparks and flames visible from the car
• Track temperatures peaked at 51.4°C in FP1 and held around 44-50°C in FP2 across the C3, C4 and C5 compound range

FP1: Mercedes Set the Benchmark, But Context Matters

Antonelli went quickest in FP1 with a 1:07.796, Russell 0.040s behind in second. Piastri was third for McLaren at 1:07.913, with Verstappen fourth despite losing more than twenty minutes to anti-stall problems that twice prevented him leaving the pit lane in the early running. By the time he joined the session, the track was already rubbering in and he completed just seventeen timed laps, posting a 1:08.077 in fourth.

Hamilton was fifth on 1:08.461, the only main Ferrari driver on track in FP1. For the second race running Ferrari used the session as a rookie run, Leclerc making way for Beganovic as the young Swede took his second FP1 appearance of the season. Six drivers ran as substitutes under the mandatory rookie rule across the field: Beganovic for Leclerc, Crawford for Stroll, Iwasa for Hadjar, Hirakawa for Ocon, Browning for Sainz and Aron for Hulkenberg. Norris was seventh despite completing just nine laps after a hydraulic leak kept him in the garage for most of the session. His 1:08.873 came from that limited window on Softs.

Lindblad put the Racing Bulls sixth at 1:08.726, the strongest result from the only full-time rookie on the 2026 grid in an FP1 session that also featured a raft of one-session stand-ins across the field. Iwasa, covering Hadjar’s sister car in the Red Bull programme, was fifteenth. The session ended under a red flag when Perez stopped his Cadillac at Turn 3 with one minute remaining, preventing any final improvements. Alonso was the last classified finisher, twenty-second and 3.537s off Antonelli’s benchmark.

FP2: Antonelli Extends the Lead, Russell Falls Back

Antonelli improved to a 1:07.014 in FP2, the fastest lap of the day by a considerable margin. Piastri was second on 1:07.251 and Norris third on 1:07.339, both McLarens inside a third of a second of the championship leader. Verstappen was fourth at 1:07.564. Then Hamilton fifth on 1:07.611. Then Russell sixth on 1:07.637.

Russell’s gap to Antonelli is 0.623s on a circuit where the entire qualifying lap takes around 67 seconds will cause some concern on one side of the Mercedes garage. Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies was direct about his own situation after FP2, noting that the five-and-a-half tenth deficit to the front would not be acceptable if it carried into Saturday, and flagging driveability concerns at Turn 3 as the specific problem they needed to solve overnight. For Mercedes, the Russell question is quieter. But it is still there especially when you consider the P2 in Barcelona would almost not have happened if the Mercedes reliability curse hadn’t struck his team mate.

Hadjar was seventh at 1:07.758, Leclerc eighth at 1:07.855 in his first running of the weekend. Lawson ninth, Bortoleto tenth. The VSC early in the session, triggered by a car stopping at Turn 6, disrupted some run plans in the opening phase, and Bottas lost his Cadillac to what looked like a suspension failure mid-session, the ride height dropping dramatically and sparks then flames visible from beneath the car before he made it slowly back to the pits. Perez stopped again with the same reported issue from FP1, ending his session after just two laps.

The Sector Story: Where Antonelli Won It

Antonelli’s fastest lap holds up on sector analysis, but not by dominating all three a trait we have seen a lot in 2026. He took the fastest first sector by some margin at 16.627, and the fastest third sector at 20.346. Norris had the quickest middle sector of the top ten at 29.995, faster than Antonelli’s 30.041. Piastri’s second sector, at 30.039, was within two thousandths of Norris. The picture across the top five is extremely tight through the technical sections of the lap, with Antonelli building his advantage primarily through the final corners where his confidence through the sweep at the end of the circuit is visible in the data.

Long Runs: McLaren’s Race Pace Changes the Picture

The single-lap order and the long-run order are not the same thing though and that is the real headline from Friday afternoon at the Red Bull Ring.

Norris produced the strongest used-Medium race simulation of the session, averaging 1:11.642 across nine laps on an eleven-lap-old set. Verstappen was close behind on 1:11.704 across nine laps on a twelve-lap-old Medium. Piastri ran 1:11.926 on a ten-lap-old set. Antonelli’s average was 1:11.265 across six laps, which appears quickest, but critically his Medium stint came on a fresh set at lap 20 of the session while the McLarens and Verstappen were running on rubber that had already done qualifying simulations. The pace delta between a fresh and used Medium at these temperatures is not negligible. Hamilton averaged 1:11.773 on a used set. Leclerc was slowest of the group at 1:12.285, on the oldest rubber of the session at fifteen laps old, and his stint came later in FP2 as track temperatures dropped from the FP1 peak.

The usual Friday caveat applies. Teams run different fuel loads, engine modes and test programmes in the opening sessions, and nobody is showing their full hand before qualifying. Long-run data from FP2 is a direction, not a verdict. What it does tell you is who isn’t struggling. Norris, Piastri and Verstappen all produced clean, consistent stints without the kind of degradation spikes that would flag a problem. That is useful information even before you know exactly what mode they were running.

On a like-for-like basis, McLaren’s race pace looks closer to Mercedes than the FP2 timesheet suggests. Norris and Piastri being that close to Antonelli on older rubber is a number that will be sitting in McLaren’s debrief. Whether it translates to Sunday is what FP3 and qualifying will clarify, but it is not something to wave away. Verstappen’s average on similar-age rubber to the McLarens tells the same story about Red Bull race pace even as their single-lap time sits half a second back. Ferrari remain a question mark as they chose Friday to run data and correlation.

Cadillac: A Friday to Forget

Both Cadillac cars had disrupted Fridays after bringing a huge upgrade package. Perez stopped at Turn 3 in the closing minute of FP1, triggering the red flag that ended the session. In FP2 he completed just two laps before reporting the same problem as FP1, the car recovered to the pits with no further running. Bottas had a more alarming moment in FP2, sparks and then flames visible from beneath the car after what appeared to be a suspension failure dropped the ride height dramatically. He made it back to the pit lane slowly. Neither car completed a representative long run across the day. Whatever Cadillac brought to Austria for this weekend, they largely did not get to run it and that in itself is an issue for the team heading into the weekend.

Coffee Corner Take

Antonelli leads both sessions and the championship. The timesheets say that and so does the single-lap data. But Friday at the Red Bull Ring handed McLaren something they can use even if its hidden in the midst of questions.

Norris and Piastri being that close on older rubber is something that will be sitting in McLaren’s debrief tonight. It does not mean they are faster over a race distance. It means they might be. On a weekend where Norris had a hydraulic problem in FP1 and Piastri was quietly consistent all day, that is a better Friday than the P2 and P3 on the FP2 sheet makes it look although given their 2026 season it has to be a huge if they can tune it in.

Verstappen’s position is the other story the timesheets obscure. Half a second back in FP2 single-lap pace, but his race simulation on similar-age Medium rubber produced an average almost identical to Norris. Mekies flagged the driveability problem at Turn 3 openly and said they had work to do overnight. They also had a seat fitting issue with Verstappen in FP2. A Red Bull that solves a specific corner problem between Friday and Saturday is not the same car on Sunday as the one that finished fourth today and how many times have we seen a very unhappy off the pace on a Friday charge like a raging bull on the Saturday after overnight sim work and set up changes in Milton Keynes.

Leclerc’s FP2 was his first running of the weekend, eighth on the timesheet, and his long-run data came on the oldest rubber in the group. Slower than everyone else in the table, but one session on fifteen-lap-old tyres with no Friday morning reference to build from. Hamilton’s understeer complaints and his 0.597s deficit to Antonelli in FP2 are harder to dismiss. Saturday’s FP3 will be the first time both Ferrari drivers have had a clean session to work from and may just be the first time that Ferrari engine is turned up.

Whilst for the championship leaders Russell’s Friday ended with a 0.623s gap to his team-mate at a circuit where a tenth counts. One session is not a pattern. But it is a gap that needs explaining before qualifying, and it will need closing before the race because Russell will want to make sure this weekend he doesn’t need reliability issues to beat his young team mate.