Kimi Antonelli leads Lando Norris and Max Verstappen in Sao Paulo FP2

Kimi Antonelli finished Friday's running at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix as the driver to beat, claiming the quickest lap of the day during the second hour of practice to edge out Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

Following a first practice session where several squads deployed a rookie driver, normal service resumed with all 22 full-time racers taking to the track despite persistent gloomy weather. Because Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, and Valtteri Bottas had missed out on meaningful running earlier, action commenced immediately when the pit lane opened at 1600 local time.

An Alpine driver set the initial pace on hard tyres with a 1m 14.165s before Leclerc went six-tenths faster on medium compounds. Antonelli then responded with a 1m 11.857s lap to bring times closer to the benchmark established in FP1. Track conditions quickly threw up challenges as Isack Hadjar reported a drizzle and Leclerc complained of a brake issue. Meanwhile, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton suffered a lock-up heading into Turn 1. Over at Audi, trouble struck as Hulkenberg failed to appear, with the team confirming he would sit out the session entirely while they worked to fix the problems that had halted Freddie Slater's FP1.

As the grid pitted to prep for the next phase of running, Hadjar capitalized on clear air and soft tyres to jump to second place on the timesheets, trailing only Antonelli's earlier hard-tyre effort. With 35 minutes left on the clock, George Russell headed a pack back onto the circuit and lopped nearly eight-tenths off his time to grab P1 with a 1m 11.036s. That top spot quickly shifted as Norris and Verstappen completed their flying laps. Just 0.020s separated that leading trio before Antonelli lowered the benchmark further, becoming the first driver to crack the 1m 10s barrier.

Leclerc attempted to chase down the Italian's time but encountered traffic on the main straight when Haas driver Rafael Camara forced the Ferrari towards the wall, costing him valuable time. Leclerc's race engineer confirmed the incident added two-tenths to his final lap, compounding a pre-existing two-tenth deficit to Mercedes and leaving him down in P7.

Teams then shifted their attention to long runs, which cemented Antonelli's grip at the top of the order as he closed the session with a 1m 10.763s lap. Just over two-tenths back, Norris, Verstappen, and Russell held tight margins over one another, while Oscar Piastri slotted in slightly further behind in the second McLaren. A frustrated Hamilton took sixth after battling ongoing tyre struggles, placing ahead of Leclerc, home hero Gabriel Bortoleto, Hadjar, and Ollie Bearman in the lead Haas.

Franco Colapinto finished P11, followed by Racing Bulls pilot Arvid Lindblad, Liam Lawson, Alpine team-mate Gasly, Fernando Alonso, and newcomer Camara. Rounding out the lower end of the classification, Carlos Sainz secured P17 for Williams ahead of Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, Williams driver Alex Albon, Cadillac's Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, and Hulkenberg, who did not set a time.