Kimi Antonelli facing threats to F1 hot streak after 'tricky' Barcelona practice

Kimi Antonelli has acknowledged that some of his main rivals “look fast” compared to him following the opening day of running in Barcelona.

Antonelli finished the second practice session in fifth place, six-tenths of a second away from the benchmark set by Lando Norris.

The Italian heads into the weekend aiming to continue his impressive run of form, having won the last five grands prix to extend his championship lead to 66 points.

While Antonelli is confident Mercedes can make progress on Saturday, he admitted that he currently appears to be playing catch-up at this stage of the weekend.

“The brakes, usually on a Friday we use a really used set so tomorrow it's not going to be a problem.

“But George looks very quick, McLaren looks very quick as well. 

“So it's not going to be easy, but we'll try to understand from tonight's work, and we'll try to be ready for tomorrow.”

The 19-year-old detailed that his biggest limitations during the day stemmed from overheating tyres.

Despite struggling to get his eye in over one lap, Antonelli stated he holds a lot more confidence over the team's long-run pace.

“It's been a bit tricky over a single lap, just the window is so small, tyres are overheating quite a lot,” Antonelli said.

“I'm just trying to find the best balance, with only one lap per set, it's always difficult, but overall, there's still work to do, quite a bit.

“I'm quite confident ahead of tomorrow. The long run was good in the practice, so that's a positive.

“Definitely looking forward to tomorrow and looking forward to the changes that we're going to make.”