Kimi Antonelli has put Mercedes firmly in the conversation at Madrid's brand new Madring circuit, clocking the fastest time in Friday's second practice session. The Mercedes driver set a 1m33.662s lap that proved just good enough to edge out Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who trailed by a mere 0.113 seconds. It's shaping up to be a proper three-way scrap between the Brackley team and the Reds, with Lewis Hamilton also getting his Ferrari to third place just 0.149s adrift of Antonelli's benchmark.

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Racing Bulls had their moment in the spotlight too, with young gun Arvid Lindblad impressing with the fourth-fastest lap before things went pear-shaped. His session ended with a hefty crash that brought out Friday's only red flag, but not before he'd shown enough pace to turn some heads. George Russell rounded out a strong showing for Mercedes in fifth, with Max Verstappen's Red Bull sixth and Oscar Piastri's McLaren in seventh.

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The midfield looked pretty tight as well, with Yuki Tsunoda's Racing Bulls teammate effort good for eighth ahead of Esteban Ocon in the Haas. Liam Lawson and Pierre Gasly completed the top ten, though there's still a world of time to make up before qualifying and the race proper. Lando Norris didn't get a representative time on the board, which could add a bit of pressure heading into the rest of the weekend.

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The gap between top and bottom is looking pretty chunky though, with Carlos Sainz's Williams and the Aston Martins struggling to find their groove down near the tail of the running order. Still, it's only practice and everyone's tyre strategies differ at this stage, so don't read too much into the order just yet. Madrid's first F1 outing looks set to deliver some proper racing if practice pace is anything to go by.

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