Antonelli Dominates Second Practice While Gasly’s Crash Halts Spa Action

Antonelli tops FP2 as Gasly crashes – Kimi Antonelli announced his intentions for the Belgian Grand Prix weekend by recording the quickest time during Friday’s second practice session at Spa-Francorchamps. The Mercedes driver’s performance came as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly suffered a dramatic incident that brought out a red flag and disrupted race-simulation preparations for several teams.

Gasly’s Heavy Impact at Fagnes

The Frenchman experienced a significant loss of control while exiting the Fagnes medium-speed corner in the middle sector of the circuit. His car clipped the barrier with considerable force, resulting in the complete detachment of his right rear wheel. This substantial incident shortened the final portion of the practice session, which had been dedicated to race-simulation runs, and promised a lengthy evening for Alpine’s engineering team.

“Overall it was a good day of testing. Just need to work on what happened in the P2. I just had a big snap, lost the car, but it was a huge snap and it took a lot longer to recover and by the time I recovered I was already off the track and could not get back on track,” Gasly explained following the incident.

Alpine team principal Steve Nielsen offered his perspective on the crash: “A small mistake, which on other tracks would have been fine, but on this track you get punished for it in certain places.”

Antonelli’s Impressive Turnaround

The 19-year-old Italian driver began the weekend with determination to reverse a recent decline in his results. Team-mate George Russell had previously reduced Antonelli’s championship advantage from 68 points down to just 25 points across the last three races. Antonelli’s fastest lap was 0.190 seconds ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris in second position, while representing a substantial 1.285-second margin over Russell.

“Was a massive turnaround with the car, because P1 we struggled a lot. It was a good change but of course a lot of work to do because Red Bull is quick, McLaren was up there. Long run felt very strong as well,” Antonelli commented after his strong showing.

Russell acknowledged his struggles during the session: “Rears [tyres] felt too cold, sliding a lot. But not 1.2 seconds cold.”

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin provided further insight: “It was a messy first session where we didn’t have the car in the right place. We thought there’d be more grip than there was, but the drivers were a lot happier with the car in the afternoon. Not a great lap for George but it was only one lap. If that doesn’t go well you look like you’re off the pace. He felt he didn’t have the tyres ready for the start of the lap. A few corners were it looks like he might have underestimated the grip level.”

Energy Management Challenges at Spa

The world champion Lando Norris confirmed that all drivers were experiencing difficulties with the circuit’s demanding energy requirements. Cars were depleting their electrical reserves on the straights, forcing engines into recovery mode and causing noticeable speed reductions before the end of each straight—a phenomenon termed “clipping” within Formula 1.

“There is just lack of deployment everywhere,” Norris stated. “Every single straight. The worst one is through Blanchimont. We go from almost 320km/h to almost 270km/h because we just have no battery left. Every single straight we’re clipping.”

Antonelli demonstrated particularly strong performance during the limited long-run laps, averaging 0.3 seconds faster than Norris and 0.4 seconds ahead of Russell. Norris reflected on his own performance: “P1 not great. P2 a little bit happier, I am still not very happy with the car, it is still very difficult to drive but we seemed a bit closer, but we are always pretty close on Friday in practice, I think we just show more pace than our competitors. We shouldn’t expect anything differently from normal.”

Other Drivers’ Performances

Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, which recorded the third-fastest time in single-lap qualifying simulations, matched Antonelli’s pace during long runs when adjusted for traffic and distance. The Dutch driver, who had topped the opening session, noted: “It has been all right for me, didn’t have big problems, the car has been in quite a good window. You see the real gap but it is nothing shocking, it is expected. It is just a bit of a tough track with the energy management, seems like we’re a bit slow on the straight compared to some of our competitors, but balance-wise it was OK.”

Lewis Hamilton finished 0.747 seconds off the pace as Ferrari continued to grapple with Spa’s traditional compromise between downforce levels and straight-line speed. The 41-year-old British driver praised the circuit: “Spa is still amazing to drive,” though his comments were cut short in the original report.

Additional news from the session includes Norris facing a 10-place grid penalty in Belgium, Red Bull making wing changes following Verstappen’s earlier crash, and comprehensive coverage available through BBC platforms for the Belgian Grand Prix.