Ferrari inch over Red Bull in FP2 with Carlos Sainz on top
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- Toby McLuskie
Carlos Sainz finished as the fastest driver in FP2, beating out Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc to claim the top spot with a lap time of 1:21.664. Mick Schumacher caused a red flag during the session, but the stoppage was only small as his car was able to be removed from the track after having a power issue.
Ferrari have small edge over Red Bull
Sainz finished atop the timing charts, as his first lap after the red flag stoppage was enough to inch ahead of Verstappen. The Dutchman finished 0.143 seconds behind the Spaniard, with Leclerc a further 0.050 seconds behind his title rival. As for the other Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez, he was only able to best a sixth-place finish and ended up being 0.730 seconds off the pace.
Norris carries McLaren above Mercedes and Alpine
Lando Norris finished as the best of the rest in FP2 this afternoon, claiming the fourth spot ahead of George Russell. The McLaren driver was 0.674 seconds off Sainz but had a 0.481 gap to Leclerc in third, showing the difference that the Papaya team still need to gain with the title contenders. Russell finished less than half-a-second off Norris, so won't be too worried, and still managed to find pace in order to beat his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, who could only best a seventh-place finish.
Alpine will be concerned with the pace shown by the young Brit, but will still relish in their positions of eighth and ninth, due to Daniel Ricciardo struggling to control the rear of his car and finishing in 11th. Esteban Ocon finished above his teammate Fernando Alonso, but only by 0.024 seconds. The Spaniard won't be worried and will look to extend his consecutive run of points finishes to 11 this week.
Albon shows off compared to rivals
Alex Albon claimed the final point in Spa and only just missed out in Zandvoort, and his confidence was clearly on show today at Monza, as the Williams driver finished in 10th, and was only just a second off the pace set by Sainz. The Thai driver was by far the best of his rivals in the practice session, finishing ahead of all of them and Ricciardo as well. Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri shared the places from 12th through to 15th, with Guanyu Zhou leading his teammate Valtteri Bottas, ahead of Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver is also being investigated for not slowing down during yellow flags.
Kevin Magnussen was the final driver within two seconds of Sainz in the lead, with Sebastian Vettel, Lance Stroll, Nicholas Latifi and Schumacher rounding off the timing charts. The latter caused a red flag during the session, but it was caused by a Power Unit issue, which was no fault of his own.