Derby Mercedes, but not only
Antonelli beats Russell. We’re only in Friday’s FP2, but as Italians it’s still nice to see that after the triumph in the Chinese GP the Bologna driver managed to get ahead of his teammate also in the second free practice session at Suzuka. Antonelli beat his garage mate and World Championship leader by just over a tenth, but in this case more than ever the saying about the third who enjoys it between two quarreling parties applied: the best session time was actually set by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
Watch out for the papaya
Commenting on the progress of this Friday, it was Antonelli himself who highlighted the danger of the papaya cars ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying and Sunday’s GP: “Our Friday was satisfactory – commented the #12 of Mercedes – we completed the entire program and managed to collect data on all three compounds. While we are happy with what we achieved, there is still work to be done. McLaren in particular appeared very fast and several other cars are not too far behind either“.
“The W17 is performing well – Antonelli added – but with variable wind conditions and colder tires it was difficult to put our laps together. Improving the overall balance is therefore an objective to achieve during the night and, if we manage it, we hope to be able to fight for pole position on Saturday. This could be crucial, given the difficulty we usually encounter in overtaking here. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow”, he concluded.
