By Alan Baldwin
MADRID, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Formula One championship leader Kimi Antonelli lapped fastest for Mercedes in free practice at Madrid's new Spanish Grand Prix circuit on Friday with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton close behind.
Second in a first practice led by teammate George Russell, Antonelli then set the pace in a later session halted briefly by Racing Bulls' British rookie Arvid Lindblad becoming the first F1 driver to crash at the Madring and bring out red flags.
"It is a very cool circuit to drive around. It is a real challenge for us as drivers, with lots of high-speed corners and walls close by," said Antonelli.
Antonelli's best lap of one minute and 33.662 seconds was 0.113 quicker than Leclerc's fastest effort. Seven-times champion Hamilton was 0.149 off the pace with Lindblad fourth despite the crash ending his session with 24 minutes to go.
The 19-year-old lost control of the rear of the car and smashed into the barriers sideways at Turn 13.
"It looked quite bad from the outside, but thankfully the impact wasn’t too heavy and I feel completely fine. There's some damage to the car, so I apologise to the team for the extra work they’ll have to do tonight," said Lindblad.
CHALLENGING STREET TRACK
Russell, Antonelli's closest title rival who led practice one with a time of 1:34.077, was fifth. The Briton is 66 points behind his teammate after 13 rounds with two wins to the Italian's seven.
Leclerc and Hamilton had been third and fourth in the first session at a bright and sunny Madring, a challenging track that runs around the IFEMA exhibition centre near the capital's Barajas airport.
"It’s a challenging street track, which is the type I usually enjoy and this one is no exception," said Leclerc.
"Our target was to maximise the number of laps and gather as much data as possible today, to get to know the track and prepare for qualifying, which will likely be the key moment of the weekend because overtaking is so difficult here."
Hamilton, third in the championship but 76 points adrift, agreed it was fun to drive.
Red Bull's four-time world champion Max Verstappen was sixth with McLaren's Oscar Piastri seventh and Racing Bulls' stand-in Yuki Tsunoda eighth and Esteban Ocon ninth for Haas.
New Zealander Liam Lawson, standing in for injured French driver Isack Hadjar for the third race in a row, was 10th for Red Bull in both sessions.
McLaren's reigning world champion Lando Norris missed the second session as the team changed his car's gearbox.
"Whenever you come to a new circuit track time is very important, so we're clearly on the back foot having missed FP2," said Norris.
After a fiery crash halted the earlier F2 practice, the opening Formula One session took place without interruptions or major incident.
Home hero Fernando Alonso brushed the wall in his Aston Martin and was 15th and 17th in the sessions respectively, while Spain's other driver Carlos Sainz was 17th and 16th for Williams in his home city, and there were complaints from several drivers over the radio about others getting in the way.
"That's just nasty," exclaimed Hulkenberg after Hamilton failed to let the German through at the final corner.
Lindblad also called out Hamilton and Antonelli as "stupid" after accusing them of obstruction at the circuit's signature 'La Monumental' banked turn 12.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Christian Radnedge and Pritha Sarkar)
