'Feel like it was a good recovery' – Antonelli and Mercedes reflect on practice running in Azerbaijan

Kimi Antonelli believes that his performance in practice ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix "was a good recovery", after the Mercedes driver suffered a mechanical issue which curtailed much of his running.

The Italian enters this weekend with an 81-point lead in the drivers' standings after his victory last time out in Madrid, but found himself on the back foot on Thursday in Baku.

Antonelli suffered a hydraulic issue aboard his Mercedes approaching the halfway point of Free Practice 1 that ended his participation in the one-hour session.

He also missed the first half of proceedings in FP2 as a new power unit was fitted due to fire damage, but even with the issues, Antonelli was still fifth fastest in FP1 and second quickest in the second session.

"We tried to do the max with what we had. Obviously lost quite a few laps in FP1 and then missing half of FP2 is never ideal, especially on a street circuit," said Antonelli.

"Overall I feel like it was a good recovery. I feel quite good in the car, obviously a few things to work on but looking forward to tomorrow."

Mercedes team mate George Russell topped both sessions on Thursday, finishing more half a second clear of Antonelli in FP2 as Mercedes looked strong on the streets of Baku.

But Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord believes that the margin between other teams will close once Qualifying and Saturday's Grands Prix take place.

"We've seen competitors bring pretty big update packages if you look at McLaren, Red Bull as well. They'll be absolutely in the mix, I don't think the gaps at the top after FP2 were representative of the true gaps in performance," he said.

"I think everything will be much closer once we're all running the same number of laps on the tyres.

"We hope to be in the mix, we should be in the mix on a low-drag circuit like this having performed really strongly at Monza but we'll have our work cut out to get on pole."