Antonelli completes Austria Friday double as Russell struggles

World championship leader Kimi Antonelli completed a Friday practice double at the Austrian Grand Prix with a dominant showing in the second session at the Red Bull Ring.

Having edged his Mercedes team-mate George Russell by just four hundredths of a second in the opening session, Antonelli separated himself from the field later in the day with a time of 1:07.014s.

That put the 19-year-old Italian 0.237s clear of Oscar Piastri in second place, with the Australian's McLaren team-mate Lando Norris almost a tenth further back in third. The margin was made all the more impressive by the fact Antonelli's time was delivered on his second flying lap on his soft tyres, at which point they were worn from his first run.

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Having appeared closely matched with Antonelli in Practice One, Russell was out of sorts and finished more than six tenths behind his team-mate in sixth.

Max Verstappen was half a second off the pace in his heavily upgraded Red Bull in fourth, edging out Lewis Hamilton, who was unable to back up the speed he showed when claiming his first victory for Ferrari last time out in Barcelona.

Verstappen's Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar edged out Ferrari's Charles Leclerc for seventh, while Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson and Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto completed the top 10.

Antonelli's retirement in Spain following a technical failure resulted in his championship lead over Hamilton being cut to 41 points, but the teenager's assured showing in Austria on Friday reasserted his status as the clear title favourite.

While McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull will all be confident of making progress overnight after having the chance to further optimise upgrades brought to their cars this weekend, perhaps most concerned of those chasing Antonelli will be Russell.

Since winning the opening race of the season, the Brit has been largely outperformed by Antonelli, who overtook his team-mate in Barcelona for second place moments before suffering the power unit failure that ended his race.

Russell has a major deficit to make up going into Saturday's final practice and qualifying, with the latter live on Sky Sports F1 at 3pm, but could at least take some comfort from appearing to be more closely matched with Antonelli during Mercedes' impressive longer race simulation runs later in the session.

There was further woe for 2026 newcomers Cadillac as Sergio Perez stopped on track, just as he had done in the closing stages of the first session.

His team-mate Valtteri Bottas' car then caught fire in the pit lane as he attempted to limp back to the pits with part of his car floor dragging against the floor.

Sky Sports F1's live Austrian GP schedule

Saturday June 27
9am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Austrian GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: Austrian GP Qualifying build-up*
3pm: AUSTRIAN GP QUALIFYING*
5pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook

Sunday June 28
7.35am: F3 Feature Race
9.05am: F2 Feature Race
10.50am: Porsche Supercup
12.30pm: Austrian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
2pm: THE AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Austrian GP reaction: Chequered Flag
5pm: Ted's Notebook

*Also on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1's European season continues with the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime