George Russell ended Friday fastest in final practice, finishing 0.274 seconds ahead of Kimi Antonelli as Mercedes assessed its pace ahead of the weekend. Russell, 68 points behind Antonelli in the championship, did not speak to the media on Friday because only one driver from each team was required to do interviews. Antonelli missed the first session because Mercedes reserve Frederik Vesti took part in one of the mandated junior-driver runs, but the rookie still ended the day close to his team-mate despite traffic on his quickest lap.
Antonelli said the tyres were overheating heavily and that finding the right balance was difficult, especially with only one flying lap. Even so, he said he felt confident about the rest of the weekend and expected Mercedes to improve after making setup changes. Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord said Russell had looked very quick and that McLaren also appeared strong. He added that Antonelli was simply catching up on lost track time and getting back into rhythm with the car.
Lord also suggested the competitive order looked different from Monaco and closer to Miami, with Mercedes and McLaren very tightly matched. Ferrari, meanwhile, appeared competitive, especially in race trim, with Charles Leclerc’s long run quicker than Russell’s when both were using the medium tyre at the same time. The picture was less encouraging for McLaren on race simulations, as Lando Norris was not competitive with Antonelli when both ran soft tyres, while Oscar Piastri was not as strong as Russell on mediums. Antonelli later showed good pace in his own race-simulation runs, although a direct comparison with Russell was not possible because they were on different tyre compounds.
Lewis Hamilton had a more difficult Friday. After Ferrari junior driver Dino Beganovic took part in the first session, Hamilton was only ninth fastest in the second. He sits second in the championship, 66 points behind Antonelli, but did not look close to the front-running pace on this day.
Max Verstappen was sixth fastest for Red Bull, but almost nine-tenths of a second off the pace. He was followed by Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad and Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto. Verstappen had already expressed concern before the weekend because of Red Bull’s weaknesses in high-speed corners this season, and his assessment of Friday was blunt. He said the team was lacking grip across high-, medium- and low-speed sections, with the car feeling unstable and unbalanced throughout the day. According to Verstappen, the tyres were not providing enough grip and the whole field appeared to be struggling, but Red Bull was still not in a position to fight at the very front.
Overall, Mercedes appeared strong over one lap, Ferrari looked promising on long runs, and McLaren and Red Bull had more mixed Friday sessions as teams continued to search for grip, balance and tyre management ahead of qualifying and the race.
