Antonelli gives rivals hope after Baku issues force Mercedes into key decision

Antonelli's FP1 came to an early end after he was forced to park his W17 with an issue that was later identified as a hydraulic problem. The championship leader returned to the track for FP2 and made the most of the limited running he had, finishing the session second fastest. However, he was still more than half a second behind his Mercedes team-mate Russell.

Speaking at the end of the day, the championship leader admitted that the hydraulic issue had compromised his running in Baku. Antonelli lost a significant amount of track time across both sessions and explained that Mercedes is still working to identify the cause of the problem. The Italian confirmed that the power unit will be changed as a precaution ahead of Saturday.

When asked whether the hydraulic problem could now put him at risk of another penalty after already serving one at Monza, Antonelli remained cautious: "We'll see, we'll see what's gonna happen, but we're trying our best to not to take any more penalties."

In addition to the sizeable gap over a single lap, Antonelli was also unable to match his team-mate's pace over the longer runs. Russell's strong showing in Baku was not confined to the qualifying simulations, as the Mercedes driver also looked highly competitive on race pace during FP2.

Russell recorded the fastest average time among the drivers included in the available race simulation data, posting a 1:47.960 average. Antonelli followed at 1:48.520, putting him 0.560 seconds per lap adrift of Russell on average and highlighting another clear gap between the two Mercedes drivers over the long runs.