Antonelli set the fastest lap around the halfway mark in the second one-hour session as drivers and teams gradually kept chipping away at their set-ups on the extremely difficult circuit in Madrid.
The 5.4km track, a hybrid of street portions and a purpose-built loop featuring several high-speed corners, proved tricky to tame from the outset. And with runoff virtually non-existent, teams made a conservative start to the weekend in first practice, sacrificing optimal lap time as drivers settled into a rhythm and built up muscle memory.
Some of those training wheels started to come off in FP2, although lap times didn't take as much as a tumble as first thought, despite the improving grip levels.
Championship leader Antonelli led the early running on medium tyres with a 1m34.428s effort, which was soon beaten by Red Bull's
But shortly thereafter, Lindblad's day came to a screeching halt as he slid into the barriers in Turn 13, a medium-speed left-hander. Lindblad escaped unharmed as the session was red-flagged with 25 minutes to go, with track marshals rushing to undo the British rookie's TecPro barrier realignment.
Partly due to the interruption, there were no further moves at the top, confirming Antonelli's lead ahead of Ferrari duo Leclerc and Hamilton. Behind fourth-placed Lindblad, Russell and Verstappen were fifth and sixth, with , disappeared into the garage after just two laps with a transmission issue, forcing
