Formula One drivers' championship leader, Kimi Andrea Antonelli, was the fastest man at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday FP2; earlier, four-time world champion Max Verstappen topped the timesheets in FP1.
The first leg of the final double-header before the 2026 summer shutdown, the Belgian Grand Prix, got underway on Friday at Spa-Francorchamps with the first two free practice sessions of the weekend.
Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli topped the timesheets in FP2 by recording a flying 1:45.944s lap time.
The Italian, who leads the Formula 1 drivers' championship, completed 17 laps in the second session of the day.
With fifteen minutes to go, the session was interrupted as the Alpine of Pierre Gasly hit the barrier at Turn 13, bringing out an extended red flag.
Gasly, who escaped unharmed from a heavy crash, outlined: "Firstly, I am glad I am okay after the incident in Free Practice 2. It was obviously a fairly big impact with the wall after the car snapped and I could not recover it fully."
"As for the rest of the day, we had a decent day of testing in both sessions where we tried different parts across both cars. We'll now work to learn what is good and what to take forward for the rest of the weekend.
"Tomorrow, we'll aim to put it all together and focus on reaching the top ten in Qualifying in the afternoon.”
Overall, the Frenchman completed 81 laps, ending FP1 P17 (1:49.712s) and FP2Â P18 (1:48.955s).
The session resumed with a couple of minutes left on the clock, enough for the drivers to do a practice start.
Meanwhile, Antonelli's teammate George Russell, running 20 laps, finished the day P8 with a 1:47.229s lap time.
Both drivers struggled in FP1, and as a result, the team had to make setup changes between the sessions, an effort that paid off, as reflected in the timesheets.
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team Trackside Engineering Director, commented: "There was less grip than we were expecting in FP1 and that meant the car was underwinged 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."
In the inaugural free practice session at Spa, the Mercedes duo ended in the top 10 with Antonelli P6 and Russell P8, both on the soft compound.
"The changes we made between the sessions did their job, and the car was in a much happier place come FP2," Shovlin added.
Further explaining: "The competitive picture looks tight as it has in recent races. Our long runs looked solid, and race pace is by far the most important thing around Spa.
"We will work hard overnight to find more pace and do our bit as a team to make sure we are in the best possible position for the rest of the weekend."
Reigning F1 world champion Lando Norris finished second with McLaren (1:46.134s), and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen (1:46.416s) was the third fastest.
The British racer will take a 10-place grid penalty at Spa this weekend, after exceeding power unit allocation (4).
Local favorite Verstappen made the most of his day on track, showcasing consistency in both outings.
The 28-year-old went off at turn 14, briefly bringing out a red flag; all in all, he completed 21 laps in FP2, returning to the RB22 cockpit on a brand-new set of softs.
Earlier, he had clocked the fastest lap time (1:47.070s) to top FP1, followed by the Scuderia Ferrari pair, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, respectively.
Afterwards, he shared his impressions, saying: “It’s been a good day; the car is in a good window, the balance was there right away, but we still need to do some fine-tuning. I’m not sure how much more pace we can find, as you see the real gap in FP2."
The Dutchman, who currently stands P7 in the driver standings, remarked: “It’s a challenging track with the energy management as we’re slower on the straights compared to our competitors, but the balance is pretty good.
"We’ll just keep focusing on ourselves, and hopefully we can close the gap in qualifying.”
Saturday will feature the third practice session and qualifying ahead of Sunday's Grand Prix at the legendary circuit.