“Kimi's been focusing more on long run pace, a bit less on the single lap.
George obviously [was focused] on both because he's aiming for pole tomorrow, but it's clear that it's very, very close.
Lord went on to state that Antonelli’s goal in Sunday’s Grand Prix will be to gain “as many positions as possible”.
“The race can fall one way and really play into his hands or another way and sort of go against him,” he explained.
“But no, I think he's aiming to get back into solid points positions.
“Kimi's been focusing more on long run pace, a bit less on the single lap. George obviously [was focused] on both because he's aiming for pole tomorrow, but it's clear that it's very, very close.
“I think if you look at the Ferraris, they've been strong in both sessions, maybe a little bit less in FP2 than FP1, but I'm sure they've got more to come so they're probably the favourites heading into tomorrow.”
While Russell reported a vibration on the car during second practice – and Antonelli experienced some understeer – Lord said that there were “no dramas in any sense”, adding that the fact that the long run pace had looked strong was “super important for Kimi coming from the back and hopefully for George racing from the front”.
Lord went on to state that Antonelli’s goal in Sunday’s Grand Prix will be to gain “as many positions as possible”.
“The race can fall one way and really play into his hands or another way and sort of go against him,” he explained. “We've had a bit of a run this year of unlucky and unfortunate VSCs and Safety Cars, so maybe we can get one back in terms of the sort of karma wheel turning.
“But no, I think he's aiming to get back into solid points positions. We saw George able to do that in Hungary where overtaking was much more difficult, but we don't want to put too precise a prediction on it because, yeah, let's see what he can make happen.”
