George Russell was fastest in second practice for the Italian Grand Prix; the Mercedes driver set 22.559 to put himself almost a tenth and a quarter faster than Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver who had topped FP1 managed to split the Mercedes after going two hundredths faster than Kimi Antoneli.
Russell has clearly got his weekend off to a positive start ahead of his bids for a first Grand Prix pole and win since the Austrian Grand Prix five events ago.
Mercedes go into this weekend as favourites, with Russell setting his fastest time midway through the session to go fastest after the Ferrari driver suffered a spin, with Lando Norris nearly a quarter of a tenth behind. Ferrari has introduced an engine upgrade power unit this weekend, but its true performance is unlikely to be clear until qualifying.
Leclerc caused the only moment of drama when he spun at the della Roggia chicane, losing the rear of his Ferrari on the high sausage kerbs, and a dangerous impeding case involving Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll. As Stroll came out of the pit lane, the Canadian carelessly veered into the path of Norris, who had to take avoiding action. The incident will be investigated by the FIA race stewards after the session.
the Italian team have lagged behind Mercedes on engine performance all season – Hamilton says they have regularly been losing 0.4secs on the straights – so to be as close as they were on a track which is so power-sensitive because of the amount of time spent at full throttle was encouraging on the face of it
however Antonelli has a penalty for using too many engine components this season after reliability problems earlier in the year. Russell will take one at a subsequent race, most likely the Azerbaijan Grand Prix later this month. These are tactile penalties as these circuits.
Antonelli looked on average two tenths faster than Russell. Norris, also on the hard tyre, was just under two tenths slower than Russell. Oscar Piastri completed the top three teams, as he went three tenths faster than Arvid Lindblad, who was two hundredths faster than Ollie Bearman.
Max Verstappen appeared to struggle in his first session of the weekend, having missed FP1, with balance being his main complaint as he went eight tenths off Russell and seven thousandths behind the Haas. His former teammate Yuki Tsunoda completed the top ten, three-quarters of a tenth off.
Tsunoda, taking part in his second race of the season as regular Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson has been drafted in to replace Isack Hadjar after a wrist injury during the summer break. Franco Colapinto put himself between them; he missed out on the top ten by a tenth and a half and was the first driver a second off the pace.
Colapinto also suffered a high-speed off through the Ascari chicane on his way to eleventh, the Argentine over a tenth and a half off Tsunoda. Lawson was just under three-quarters of a tenth faster than Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly was four hundredths behind Hulkenberg, with the second Audi of Gabriel Bortoleto three thousandths behind.
However, the ongoing row over Monaco speeding saw his ten seconds’ worth of penalties reinstated following a ruling by the FIA International Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal did not address whether the pit-lane speeding penalties awarded to Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, Russell and Piastri were correct under the established measurement, or whether their cars ever physically exceeded the 60km/h limit.
That was not relevant to the bounds of the hearing, which was to address McLaren’s and Red Bull’s protest against the decision to rescind Gasly’s penalty.
Alex Albon was nearly half a tenth faster than his Williams teammate Alex Albon with the Haas of Esteban Ocon half a second further behind.
Backmarkers Aston Martin and Cadillac completed the field, with Fernando Alonso just over half a tenth ahead of Sergio Perez. The Mexican’s teammate Valtter Bottas almost seven hundredths behind, with Stroll a tenth off.
