Kimi Antonelli confirms 'big changes' to overcome recent 'hurt'

Kimi Antonelli has confirmed that Mercedes made "big changes" to his W17 between first and second practice ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

The championship leader was more than five tenths adrift of Max Verstappen in the opening session at Spa-Francorchamps before going quickest in FP2.

The changes made to Antonelli's car ahead of FP2 made a significant difference, with only Lando Norris getting within two tenths of the 19-year-old.

While Antonelli's Mercedes felt much better, he believes there is still work to be done by both the team and himself.

"Yeah, we made big changes to the car, and it was a lot better," said Antonelli. "So that's a good direction. 

"Of course, there's still a lot of work to do as a team, as well as with my driving. But yeah, it was a much better session, and now I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

The clear goal for Antonelli this weekend is a sixth victory of the season, having scored no points at Silverstone, something which "hurt".

He sits 25 points ahead of team-mate George Russell in the standings, with the aim of extracting everything from every session in Belgium.

Asked if a sixth win of 2026 is the target at Spa, Antonelli replied: "Yeah, of course. Obviously Silverstone was a great weekend, but I came away with no points, which obviously hurt a lot. 

"This weekend is obviously a different one, a new challenge, and the goal is still to maximise every session, every time I get in the car, and then maximise the result. 

"Today was definitely a good way to end the day, but there's still a lot of work to do ahead of tomorrow."