World championship leader Kimi Antonelli produced a dominant display to top second practice at the Belgian Grand Prix, finishing almost two tenths clear of McLaren's Lando Norris.
The Mercedes driver had been uncharacteristically off the pace in first practice earlier on Friday, but rediscovered the speed he has consistently shown throughout the season. His team-mate George Russell, who is 25 points back in the standings in second, was a massive 1.285s off the pace in eighth.
Antonelli will be further buoyed by the distance he was able to put between himself and his nearest title rivals. Lewis Hamilton, who is seven points further back from Russell, was fourth for Ferrari but trailed Antonelli by almost three quarters of a second.
Max Verstappen, who topped first practice for Red Bull, was almost half a second down on Antonelli in third amid some furious complaints on team radio over his car's gear shifts. Oscar Piastri was almost a second off the pace in sixth for McLaren, but did have to contend with a hydraulic issue that kept him off track for the first 20 minutes of the session.
Franco Colapinto impressively outpaced Russell to take seventh for Alpine, while Racing Bulls duo Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson continued their consistent form to complete the top 10. A big crash for the other Alpine driver Pierre Gasly saw the final quarter of the session all but lost to a red-flag stoppage.
Drivers only managed to return to the track with two minutes remaining to perform practice starts. That was the second red flag of the session after there had earlier been a short delay to clear gravel from the track after it had been whipped onto the circuit by a car running wide.
Antonelli confirmed after the session that Mercedes had made "big changes" between Friday's sessions, which enabled him to find more pace. "We made big changes with the car, and it was a lot better, so that's a good direction," Antonelli said.
"Of course, there's still a lot of work to do, as a team and as well with my driving, but it was a much better session and I'm now looking forward to tomorrow."
The Italian arrived in Belgium in strong form despite having seen his title lead reduced by 41 points over the last three rounds. He retired from second place in the closing stages in Barcelona because of an engine failure, and was then closing in on victory at Silverstone two weeks ago when a wheel-guard failure dropped him out of the points.
Despite his advantage closing, it could be argued that Antonelli appears more dominant over his team-mate Russell than at any stage of the historic five-race winning streak earlier this season that established a big title-race lead.
Antonelli added: "Silverstone was a great weekend but we came out with no points, which obviously hurt a lot. This weekend is a different one, a new challenge, and the goal is to still maximise every session, every time I get in the car, and then maximise the result."
Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix takes place on Saturday at 3pm, with build-up starting at 2.15pm, live on Sky Sports F1.
Source: Sky Sports