The competitive picture is still unclear after a day on which many of the teams and drivers admitted they were struggling to work out the optimum use of energy with this year’s new engines. Management of the hybrid system is critical with the power split about 50-50 between internal combustion engine and electrical power.
Mercedes, though, set highly impressive times on their race-distance runs late in the session that seemed to underline their position as pre-season favourites.
Russell looked as if he had an advantage over the rest of the field of as much as 0.6secs a lap on his long run, leaving Leclerc sounding a little resigned.
Ferrari were fancied by many coming into the season and spent much of the day at the top of the times, only to be usurped by McLaren and Mercedes.
Leclerc said: “P1 looked positive but then in P2 the teams are showing little by little a bit more and unfortunately we seem to be on the back foot especially compared to Mercedes, who look very strong.
“I don’t think they showed everything on low fuel but on high fuel it was very impressive. It is the first time probably we see how much (of a gap) there is to them and it is a bit more than I would have liked.”
Australian Piastri said: “If you can operate the car roughly how you expect it to, then you find a huge amount of lap time.
“I think we have been there or thereabouts. don’t think we ever thought we were a long way behind Mercedes and Ferrari. I think we thought we were just a little step behind.”
Antonelli added: “Massive learning every time we go on track and we understand more about the track. It looks like it is a close fight with the top teams. It is not going to be easy. Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, they all look strong.”
Verstappen’s pace was hidden by problems on his soft tyre runs and an off at the high-speed Turn 10 on his long run.
