Andrea Kimi Antonelli tops practice, McLaren optimistic after good showing from upgrades, Ferrari settles Mexico dispute, Liam Lawson still in the gun over contract delay, Qatar and Abu Dhabi in focus amid regional tensions

It’s only practice, but new world champion Andrea Kimi Antonelli is showing no signs of easing off the throttle.

Final practice had looked poised to end with McLaren, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes separated by just 0.02s, with Lando Norris leading Max Verstappen and George Russell. Oscar Piastri was only 0.048s further back.

Then Antonelli blew them all away, his fastest time putting a quarter of a second — 0.253 — on the entire field.

Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship™ LIVE in 4K | Get Kayo now >

Though he was boosted by a good incidental slipstream from Alex Albon, he was already ahead of all of the frontrunning contenders by the time he exited the final corner, and he wasn’t the fastest driver over the line.

Having won the title last weekend with a podium, Antonelli looks on track to deliver Mercedes the constructors championship in style by putting himself comfortably in the frame to lead the weekend.

For George Russell, unfortunately, it’s more of the same too, with the Englishman set to take a five-place grid penalty for taking a new internal combustion engine.

But with Mercedes needing to outscore Ferrari by only three points this weekend, the penalty is unlikely to make much of a difference.

What could shake things up, however, is the forecast.

Predicting rain in Interlagos is a much-loved pastime of the F1 paddock, but the forecast for Saturday looks very wet, with showers and thunderstorms on the radar from morning until night. It seems unlikely that the track will evade the weather.

Whether Friday’s results can hold in sopping-wet conditions remains to be seen.

McLAREN ENCOURAGED BY 2027-FOCUSED UPGRADES

McLaren has put itself into the mix in part thanks to its latest round of upgrades.

The outgoing constructors champion was the only team to have shipped new parts to Brazil — some others are already up against the cost cap for spares, never mind upgrades — and they appeared to pay dividends immediately, with Norris topping FP1 and finishing second, behind Antonelli, in FP2.

The team said ahead of the weekend that this is round of updates is partly aimed at 2027, in particular the new front wing concept, which is a notable departure from the previous specification.

“We were working through the upgrades and seeing if they are working as they should, and they are,” Norris said, notably more positive than he has been at recent rounds. “We seemed to gain performance.

“Nothing has changed too much from a driving point of view — it’s still tricky — but it’s maybe brought a little bit of lap time, which is what we want.

“As we know, it’s been a tricky car. Today seemed a little bit more straightforward, so even though the upgrades haven’t aimed to change handling characteristics, they’ve aimed to just bring load, to bring grip.

“From that sometimes you get a bit of a difference in the feeling, and I think today was a slightly more positive feeling, so that’s certainly a good start to the weekend.”

Piastri, who sat out FP1 to give reserve driver Leonardo Fornaroli a spin, said the upgrades felt “encouraging”.

The signs are certainly positive that McLaren feels it’s on the right track from the off in Brazil.

VASSEUR SAYS GUIDELINES ‘CLEAR’ AFTER POST-MEXICO MEETING

Notably absent from the mix at the front was Ferrari despite expectations the team would be competitive in Brazil.

Lewis Hamilton was sixth and 0.45s off the pace on the first day of his 400th grand prix weekend, while Charles Leclerc was 0.27s further adrift, thanks in part to being blocked by Haas debutant Rafael Câmara on his fastest lap.

“The FP2 was very tricky, actually one of the worst feelings I’ve had this year in the car, so there’s plenty to work on,” he said.

“It didn’t feel quite right, but I’ve got some ideas. We’ll change the car I think quite significantly. We’ll see how it goes. I hope we can do a step forward. The raw pace wasn’t great today.”

At least at this rate the team won’t be in a position to throw away another victory, as it did in Mexico, where it had the quickest car.

Talk of Ferrari tensions dominated the build-up to the weekend, with talks brought forward to Thursday night, after Leclerc arrived at the track following the birth of his first child.

While he was absent, Hamilton had doubled down on his claims that Leclerc raced him more aggressively than he did other drivers and that he wasn’t a team player.

Though Vasseur wouldn’t be drawn on the contents of the meeting, he said he saw the friction between his drivers as having built up through the year and in need of a release.

“I think they accumulated perhaps a bit of frustration because they are starting each weekend side by side, and you have a kind of accumulation of that,” he said.

“But at the end of the day, the guidelines are always the same: they need to respect each other.

“They are two competitors with a fighting spirit, for sure, but they need to have respect for the other one but mainly, and firstly, they need to respect the brand, the team, the people working at home (at the factory) and the people working on track.

“The conclusion of the meeting yesterday evening was clear. It was a clear reminder that Ferrari is coming first. It’s coming first for the brand, for the employees, for the tifosi (the fans). This we have to keep it in mind.”

But Vasseur also admitted that he knew what he was getting himself in for by signing Hamilton alongside Leclerc to form such a potent line-up.

“You have a kind of escalation because (they both) want to win races,” he said.

“I think it’s probably the downside of the system, that we have two competitive guys starting each weekend next to each other.

“But I think if we are P2 (in the championship) today, it’s also because we have two guys who are very, very close, and we have to manage it.

“But it’s a choice in the line-up, and I have the positive and the negative, but I will deal with the negative.”

RACING BULLS DELAYS LAWSON CALL

Racing Bulls announced with great fanfare a long-term new contract on Friday, but it wasn’t for Liam Lawson.

Instead it was for Alan Permane, who will remain with the team until 2031.

Permane joined Racing Bulls in 2024 as racing director after being unceremoniously sacked from a top position at Alpine, where he had worked since 1989. A paddock stalwart, he was an easy pick for Racing Bulls, and he became team principal last year.

This year the team is on track to finish fifth in the championship, which would be the best result in its history.

Lawson, however — despite being easily the team’s top performer — is still waiting for his new deal, admitting this week that his future was “blurry” and presumably becoming increasingly obscured by the day.

Nikola Tsolov, the Red Bull junior contending for the F2 title, would be his replacement.

Though he refused to put a timeline on the decision, he said he was attempting to bring analysis to the call in what he described as a departure from past Red Bull practice.

“Red Bull’s had a very successful young driver program, and I don’t want to be critical of it, but … maybe sometimes the drivers haven’t been able to have enough time to settle, or maybe some snap decisions have been made.

“We’re trying to apply a little bit of science, and that takes some time — we are looking at everything and studying, analysing.

“Time is on our side. We’re not in a rush to do anything, and I’m very confident the right decision will be made.

“I realise it’s frustrating for our drivers. I realise it’s frustrating for everyone else, but we want to get it right, and we will get it right.

“I’m sure when we announce it in the coming weeks, everyone will be happy.”

Not everyone can be happy, though. Either Lawson or Tsolov will not be in Formula 1 next year.

Further down the grid, Colton Herta finally got his superlicence after partaking in his sixth FP1 session of the season.

He is now eligible to race in Formula 1, with Valtteri Bottas’s hold on his seat under threat.

There is some speculation that an announcement could be made at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, on Cadillac home soil — though with sale rumours swirling around the team, the situation remains finely poised.

WOLFF BACKS F1 TO MAKE IMMINENT MIDDLE EAST CALL

While Formula 1 is focused on action in Brazil, the sport’s leaders will also have one eye on the Lusail International Circuit, almost 12,000km away.

Despite widespread rider dissatisfaction and despite one manufacturer boycotting the event, MotoGP is going ahead with its Qatar Grand Prix this weekend.

MotoGP and Formula 1 share Liberty Media as a parent company, and this weekend’s two-wheel race demonstrates that neither sport has been bluffing when it’s said it intends to race in the Middle East this year, hoping the promoter would call off their races.

Formula 1 is due to race in Qatar in three weeks, on 29 November, and in Abu Dhabi the following weekend, on 6 December.

The sport has pushed back numerous deadlines to make a call, having initially been poised to decide whether or not to go in mid-September and then mid-October.

Those deadlines have been based partly on the time required to set up an alternative venue to close the season. To buy time, F1 has paid for Imola to begin setting up for a race on 6 December as a fallback option.

This Tuesday, following the São Paulo Grand Prix, is now being billed as the final moment the sport can trigger that fallback — though Racer has reported that Imola could wait a little longer, until the end of the week, before needing a definite answer

If F1 commits to the Middle East on Tuesday but later has to call them off, the season will end with the Las Vegas Grand Prix, two weeks from now, with no replacement events.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff gave short shrift to critics of the sport’s wait-late position — including MotoGP’s outspoken riders “who know nothing” about the politics of the region — and said he trusted the sport’s organisers absolutely.

“Stefano (Domenicali, F1 CEO) and Mohammed (Ben Sulayem, FIA president) have been pretty clear about the situation that Formula 1 follows what the international guidelines are, whether there are travel restrictions, airlines not flying, any warnings in the region, the kind of feedback that local governments are making — so not only the promoters, but what the local governments are making.

“This is what you need to rely on, in my opinion, and I’m fully with that.

“Of course you’ve got to be wary of what’s happening in the next few days, few weeks, and Stefano has his finger on the pulse to monitor that.

“If things were to get more dangerous and we would get that feedback, then he’s going to be the first one, together with Mohammed, to protect the people that were meant to travel. That’s why I’m following their guidance.”

The PGA European Tour is continuing in Abu Dhabi this week despite ongoing tensions, but Qatar has withdrawn from hosting rugby’s 2028 Nations Championship despite the tournament being well into the future.

Meanwhile, Socceroos stars are reportedly considering a boycott matches in Qatar and Jordan scheduled in the coming weeks.

Early on Saturday morning (AEDT), the United States issues fresh security warnings via consulates in the Middle East urging its citizens to prepare for the potential for flight cancellations, airspace closures and a rapid escalation in fighting in the region.