Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc edged championship leader Kimi Antonelli in a fiercely competitive second practice session for the 2026 United States Grand Prix, while McLaren endured a difficult afternoon wrestling with grip at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas.
Leclerc posted a benchmark of 1m35.291s to finish just 0.042s ahead of Antonelli, with Max Verstappen a further 0.147s back in third.
The leading trio opened up a significant gap to the rest of the field, suggesting Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull could be closely matched heading into the weekend.
Verstappen initially set the pace on medium tyres before George Russell briefly moved ahead. The switch to soft rubber brought a more representative picture, although extracting performance proved anything but straightforward on COTA’s bumpy 5.5km layout.
The circuit’s fast opening-sector Esses proved particularly treacherous. Russell lost control of his Mercedes momentarily before managing to save it, while Lando Norris struggled with an unsettled McLaren and ran off the track in the final sector.
Verstappen clocked a 1m35.480s to take provisional command, but Leclerc responded on his first soft-tyre flyer, gaining crucial time through the final sector to take top spot. Antonelli then split the two, underlining Mercedes’ potential ahead of qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton was fourth, six tenths off Leclerc’s benchmark, although several frontrunners did not complete an entirely clean qualifying simulation before switching their attention to longer runs.
Russell recovered from his moment in the Esses to finish fifth, while Liam Lawson delivered an encouraging performance for Racing Bulls in sixth.
McLaren, however, had little to celebrate. Norris and Oscar Piastri finished seventh and eighth respectively, both around a second adrift of Leclerc as they battled persistent handling problems and a lack of grip.
Isack Hadjar placed ninth for Red Bull, with Haas’s Oliver Bearman completing the top ten.
With the leading three separated by less than two tenths, Friday’s second session offered an early indication of a tight fight at the front.
But McLaren’s struggles and COTA’s punishing demands leave plenty of questions for teams to answer before qualifying.
Red Bull's Isack Hadjar is not quite ready to call time on his 2026 campaign.…
Aston Martin F1 team owner Lawrence Stroll is reportedly “at wit’s end”, according to Sky…
Toto Wolff has no intention of rewriting Mercedes’ recent history now that the team is…
Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes an alliance between 2026 F1 world champion Kimi…
Nikola Tsolov missed out on an immediate promotion to Formula 1, but Red Bull has…
Formula 1's remarkable commercial ascent may be approaching another defining moment, with former Liberty Media…