F1 champions trade places as mist descends on Sao Paulo GP practice

Kimi Antonelli underlined his new-found status as F1 champion by comfortably setting the fastest lap in a Friday practice for the São Paulo Grand Prix that was blighted by mist.

Free of the burden of bidding for the title, and after recovering from an illness that affected him during last weekend's Mexico City GP in which finishing third was enough to see him crowned as F1's youngest champion, Antonelli was the only driver who managed to dip into the 1:10s for a lap around the renowned Interlagos.

Under a cloud bank that slowly descended over the circuit as the session wore on, and with low track temperatures ahead of a weekend set to be heavily affected by rain, Antonelli posted a time of one minute 10.763s on the soft-compound Pirellis.

It easily pushed McLaren's Lando Norris off top spot by a quarter of a second, and reversed the standings at the end of FP1 when the Briton finished fastest by 0.082s ahead of the 20-year-old.

Max Verstappen, as was the case in FP1, was third quickest in his Red Bull, with the four-time F1 champion, Norris and George Russell in his Mercedes in fourth, separated by just 0.020s.

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On his first push lap in the opening few minutes of the session, Antonelli posted the third-quickest lap of the day, only bettered by his own and that of the leading time from Norris in FP1, with a 1:11.857s on hard tyres.

The Italian came within three thousandths of a second of that lap on his next outing before the long runs unfolded. At that stage, Norris was second fastest, 0.209s adrift, followed by Verstappen, a further 0.075s down, both on the medium compound.

A trait from FP1 that continued throughout FP2 was the number of drivers needing to use the sizeable run-off area out of Turn 1, heading into the Senna S.

The issue appeared to be a bump on the approach into the downhill left-hander, forcing drivers - including the likes of Antonelli and Russell - off track.

Twenty-five minutes into the session, Russell was the first driver to venture out on the soft tyres, and he immediately went quickest with a time almost eight-tenths faster than Antonelli.

It was a benchmark rapidly wiped out by Norris by 0.020s before Verstappen split the pair, finishing six-thousandths adrift of the outgoing champion.

Antonelli, though, showed his hand soon after, setting the lap that remained unbeaten through to the end of the session.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri was fifth quickest, 0.321s adrift, with the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc surprisingly off the pace in sixth and seventh at a track many believed would suit the SF-26s.

Hamilton was 0.450s down and Leclerc, who missed FP1 as reserve Dino Begovic took up the Monégasque's seat, finished 0.720s adrift.

Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto, Isack Hadjar in his Red Bull and Haas' Oliver Bearman completed the top 10, the latter 1.228s behind Antonelli.

Cadillac's Valtteri Bottas was the slowest of those who set a time in 21st, finishing 2.620s adrift.

Sadly for Audi's Nico Hulkenberg, he failed to even get into the car due to a terminal issue initially encountered by reserve Freddie Slater in FP1 that restricted the 18-year-old to seven laps.

The stewards only have one investigation to mull over, that involving Haas rookie Rafael Camara, the Brazilian making his F1 debut in front of his home crowd this weekend, but caught heavily impeding Leclerc.