ITALIAN GP – Carlos Sainz fastest in second practice ahead of Max Verstappen at sober Monza
Carlos Sainz was fastest in the second practice for the Italian Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver set a 21.664 putting himself almost a tenth and a half ahead of Max Verstappen. Sainz set the pace from the start and improved his time by half a second through the hour-long session to top the times.
Verstappen will take a five-place penalty and Sainz will start from the back, after both took fresh components on their power units, they will be joined by both Yuki Tsunoda and Lewis Hamilton.
Sainz will be the favourite to take victory in the race, but the Dutchman was three and a half tenths faster on his medium race run, while Ferrari looked to have the upper hand by being a quarter of a second faster than Red Bull on
Lando Norris looked to extract the most from his McLaren to go fourth fastest nearly four tenths behind Leclerc after going nearly half a tenth faster than George Russell. Sergio Perez split the two Mercedes going nearly half a second behind, and ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Russell said, “We started off quite well, but Ferrari and Red Bull have taken a step forwards – or maybe we’ve taken a step back. We were obviously behind a McLaren in P2 so a bit of work is needed to understand that.”
The race weekend has been overshadowed by the death of Queen Elizabeth II, with several teams paying respects and a further minute’s silence expected before the race on Sunday. There have also been tributes to The Queen on many of the cars, and touching words from the sport’s leading figures.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner described the mood in Monza as “very sombre.” Adding “We should be celebrating what she did for our country, the way she represented us and the high standards she had. The response in Monza here this morning was extremely moving.”
It was at Imola in Italy, last season where the paddock came together to remember the queen’s husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and at Monza in 1997 where the death of Diana, Princess of Wales were remembered following their deaths.
The session was interrupted halfway through when Mick Schumacher’s Haas stopped on track, it is expected the German will join the list of drivers taking penalties for fresh power units. Esteban Ocon once again was ahead of Alpine teammate Fernando Alonso, the two separated by just over two hundredths of a second.
Alex Albon was tenth, the Williams driver going seven-tenths faster than Daniel Ricciardo denied a place in the top ten. Guanyu Zhou was twelfth ahead of Alfa Romeo teammate Valtteri Bottas by half a second, they were ahead of the Alpha Tauri’s. Pierre Gasly eight tenths ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda.
Kevin Magnussen was sixteenth a tenth and three quarters ahead of Sebastian Vettel. The Germans going six hundredths faster than teammate Lance Stroll, while Nicolas Latifi and Mick Schumacher rounded out the field.