Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli has topped Friday Practice at the 2026 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
McLaren’s Lando Norris set the pace in FP1 ahead of Antonelli but the Mercedes driver responded with a dominant FP2 to set the pace across a busy day of practice.
FP1
Alpine’s Gabriele Mini was first on track but didn’t set a lap time as Alpine’s Liam Lawson set the early pace of 1m 14.814, which soon tumbled as Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen soon exchanged fastest laps.
Verstappen found himself top in the ninth minute on the hard tyre with 1m 12.959 before a red flag was thrown four minutes later, after Audi’s FP1 driver – Freddie Slater stopped on track with a gearbox issue which ended his session prematurely.
The session resumed in the 20th minute and Antonelli two minutes later posted 1m 12.789 before he found a further 0.012 seconds to post 1m 12.777 to finish the opening stints fastest.
Verstappen meanwhile was the first driver to switch to the soft tyre and posted 1m 11.953 in the 27th minute to go fastest.
Antonelli responded 10 minutes later on his second soft-tyre flier as he posted 1m 11.799 to go quickest, but Norris four minutes later found a further 0.082 seconds to top the session on 1m 11.717.
Out of the six FP1 drivers, Mini finished quickest in seventh ahead of McLaren’s Leonardo Fornaroli in 11th, whilst Luke Browning finished 17th for Williams and Colton Herta was 20th quickest as he achieved the distances needed to qualify for a FIA Superlicense.
Dino Beganovic and Slater were the only drivers to not set a soft-tyre lap times due to reliability issues.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m 11.717 |
| 2 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | + 0.082 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.236 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.324 |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.386 |
| 6 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | + 0.439 |
| 7 | Gabriele Mini | Alpine | + 0.852 |
| 8 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | + 0.897 |
| 9 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | + 0.937 |
| 10 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | + 0.998 |
| 11 | Leonardo Fornaroli | McLaren | + 1.116 |
| 12 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 1.120 |
| 13 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 1.300 |
| 14 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | + 1.321 |
| 15 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | + 1.654 |
| 16 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 1.794 |
| 17 | Luke Browning | Williams | + 1.874 |
| 18 | Rafael Camara | Haas | + 1.979 |
| 19 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 2.043 |
| 20 | Colton Herta | Cadillac | + 2.558 |
| 21 | Dino Beganovic | Ferrari | + 2.640 |
| 22 | Freddie Slater | Audi | + 3.249 |
FP2
Having sat out FP1 for Mini, Pierre Gasly was straight out on track on the hard tyre and set 1m 14.165 as the initial benchmark, which was soon beaten by Charles Leclerc on the medium tyre before Antonelli posted 1m 11.857 on the hard tyre to set the initial pace.
Antonelli shortly afterwards found 0.023 seconds to set 1m 11.824 as the benchmark time which nobody else beat in the opening stint, as Norris found himself 0.209 seconds shy in second.
Once the soft tyre qualifying simulations commenced, Russell set 1m 11.036 as the fastest lap time in the 27th minute but Norris found a further 0.020 seconds to go top, just before Verstappen fell 0.006 seconds shy of the Brit a minute later.
Antonelli however found 0.253 seconds in the 29th minute to top the session on 1m 10.763 from Norris.
Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg sat out the session due to an electrical issue.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 1m 10.763 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.253 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.259 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.273 |
| 5 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.321 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.450 |
| 7 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.720 |
| 8 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | + 1.017 |
| 9 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | + 1.076 |
| 10 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 1.228 |
| 11 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | + 1.228 |
| 12 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | + 1.245 |
| 13 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | + 1.279 |
| 14 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 1.346 |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 1.775 |
| 16 | Rafael Camara | Haas | + 1.798 |
| 17 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 1.979 |
| 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 2.179 |
| 19 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 2.190 |
| 20 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac | + 2.553 |
| 21 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | + 2.620 |
| 22 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | No Time |
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