2026 Austrian GP FP2: Antonelli fastest again in Austria

Kimi Antonelli continued his commanding start to the Austrian Grand Prix weekend by topping Free Practice 2 for Mercedes, beating McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to complete a Friday practice clean sweep at the Red Bull Ring.

Having led the way in the opening session, the leader of the 2026 F1 World Championship returned to the Spielberg circuit for the second hour of practice and lowered the benchmark once again. Antonelli’s best lap of 1m07.014s proved enough to finish 0.237s clear of Piastri, while Norris completed the top three to underline McLaren’s improved pace heading into qualifying.

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Track action resumed at 17:00 local time in slightly cooler conditions than those experienced during the afternoon session, giving teams a valuable opportunity to complete both qualifying simulations and longer race runs around Formula 1’s shortest lap.

2026 Austrian Grand Prix FP2 Results

2026 Austrian Grand Prix FP2, 26 June 2026

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time / Gap	Laps
1	12	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	1:07.014	32
2	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+0.237s	32
3	1	Lando Norris	McLaren	+0.325s	32
4	3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	+0.550s	29
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+0.597s	33
6	63	George Russell	Mercedes	+0.623s	25
7	6	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull Racing	+0.744s	28
8	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+0.841s	35
9	30	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+1.221s	34
10	5	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	+1.286s	30
11	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+1.362s	33
12	41	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	+1.364s	29
13	87	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	+1.518s	33
14	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	+1.545s	32
15	31	Esteban Ocon	Haas F1 Team	+1.816s	33
16	43	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+1.817s	30
17	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	+1.824s	34
18	55	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+2.117s	30
19	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+3.530s	27
20	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+3.684s	32
21	77	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	+4.293s	6
22	11	Sergio Perez	Cadillac		2

The drivers who had sat out FP1 to accommodate rookie outings all returned to their regular seats, including Charles Leclerc after Ferrari academy driver Dino Beganovic had taken over his SF-26 during the opening practice session. Ferrari had used the opportunity to continue evaluating its latest power unit upgrade package.

Audi pair Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto were among the first cars to head onto the circuit, but Hulkenberg’s opening flying lap came to an immediate end after he ran wide under braking, highlighting that the braking difficulties seen by several drivers earlier in the day had not completely disappeared.

Those avoiding mistakes wasted little time establishing representative lap times. Norris was first to the top of the leaderboard on the medium compound tyres, recording a 1m08.000s to finish two tenths ahead of McLaren team-mate Piastri during the opening phase of the session.

Cadillac’s hopes of bouncing back from a difficult FP1 were short-lived. After replacing Sergio Perez’s Engine Control Unit between sessions following his earlier mechanical failure, the Mexican again suffered problems when he pulled off the circuit at Turn 6. His stranded car triggered a brief Virtual Safety Car while marshals recovered the Cadillac.

Although frustrating for the American squad, the interruption gave Max Verstappen an opportunity to address a separate issue. The Red Bull driver had complained about discomfort in his seat and used the pause to return to the garage for adjustments before rejoining the session.

When the green flag returned, George Russell’s first representative effort was only good enough for fourth place as Mercedes initially struggled to match Norris’ benchmark. The McLaren driver also endured a scare of his own, spinning and bouncing across the run-off area while pushing to improve his lap time.

Antonelli soon restored Mercedes to the top of the timing screens, becoming the first driver to dip below the 1m08s barrier after improving on the fastest lap he had set during FP1. Leclerc also made strong progress, moving into fifth place ahead of Verstappen, Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar.

As the session approached the halfway mark, Cadillac’s difficult afternoon worsened further. Valtteri Bottas reported smoke inside the cockpit before limping back to the pit lane, where mechanics quickly extinguished a small fire underneath the floor of the car. It completed an extremely frustrating day for the American manufacturer, with both drivers suffering significant reliability issues.

Attention then turned to the all-important soft tyre qualifying simulations. McLaren continued to look increasingly competitive as Piastri briefly displaced Antonelli from the top of the order, only for the Mercedes driver to immediately respond with an even quicker lap by just a few hundredths of a second.

Antonelli eventually extended his advantage with another improvement, lowering the benchmark to 1m07.014s. No rival could match the Italian’s pace during the remainder of the session, leaving him comfortably fastest at the end of Friday running. Piastri finished closest, just over two tenths behind, while Norris secured third to complete an encouraging afternoon for McLaren.

Verstappen recovered from another disrupted session to finish fourth despite his earlier seat issues, with Lewis Hamilton fifth for Ferrari. Russell took sixth ahead of Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, while Leclerc ended the session eighth, 0.841s off Antonelli’s pace.

Liam Lawson placed ninth for Racing Bulls, with Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto rounding out the top 10.

Pierre Gasly narrowly missed out on a top-10 result in 11th ahead of Arvid Lindblad, Ollie Bearman, Hulkenberg and Haas driver Esteban Ocon. Alpine’s Franco Colapinto finished 16th, around half a second slower than team-mate Gasly, followed by Williams pair Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz, with Aston Martin duo Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll completing the order ahead of the troubled Cadillacs.

Perez and Bottas remained rooted to the bottom of the timesheets after neither driver was able to return to the circuit following their separate mechanical failures, leaving Cadillac with a significant overnight workload before the final practice session.