Antonelli praises ‘massive turnaround’ by Mercedes after topping Friday

Kimi Antonelli says Mercedes had to produce a “massive turnaround” with its car between Friday practice sessions at the Belgian Grand Prix, after he set the fastest time in FP2.

Max Verstappen was quickest ahead of the two Ferrari drivers in FP1 as both Mercedes and McLaren appeared to be slightly off the pace. That was confirmed when Antonelli hit the front early in the second session and was joined at the top of the timing pages by Lando Norris, but the championship leaders says the car needed a lot of work after the opening hour of running.

“It was a massive turnaround with the car because in FP1 we struggled a lot, a lot more than anticipated,” Antonelli said. “So it was a good change but of course there is a lot of work to do because Red Bull is quick, McLaren was up there, so we just need to put things together.

“The long run felt very strong as well but obviously the car changed quite a bit between the two sessions, so a lot of work to do overnight in order to be ready for tomorrow and on Sunday. I cannot go too much into the details but a lot of sliding overall [in FP1] and just struggling to get the confidence with the car.”

Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained that the swing in performance was centered around the understanding of the grip level on Friday, and believes that may have played a role in George Russell being more than a second off his teammate in FP2.

“It was a messy first session where we didn't have the car in the right place,” Shovlin said. “We thought there'd be a bit more grip than there was but looks like other people pitched theirs a bit better. We had a chance between sessions to reposition it all and the drivers were a lot happier with the car in the afternoon.

“Not a great lap for George, but it was only one lap so if that doesn't go well you look like you're off the pace. He felt he didn't have the tires ready for the start of the lap, which leads to a bit of a loss. There's a few corners where it looks like he might have underestimated the grip level but given the first session that we had, that’s not a big surprise. There's bits for him to work on but as I said we can see a lot of it in the data that we'll be chasing and I'm pretty sure he'll be there tomorrow.

“There's a bit more to find [as a team] for sure. I think even Kimi felt he didn't have a perfect lap. But we're going to have to find a bit because we can see that the others are pretty close to us on pace; particularly on long runs, everyone looks quite similar and that'll be the thing that'll probably affect the finishing order on Sunday. I'd be optimistic we can find a bit from where we were.”