ITALIAN GP – Lewis Hamilton fastest three thousandths ahead of Lando Norris in second practice
Lewis Hamilton was fastest in second practice for the Italian Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver set a 20.738 on the soft tyre to pip Lando Norris by three-thousandths of a second. Hamilton set his fastest time just after the halfway point to top the session, which suggests that it could be a very tight weekend.
On Sunday, Norris cut Max Verstappen’s lead in the championship to seventy points last Sunday when he won the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort by over twenty seconds from the Red Bull driver. Based on Friday he could do the same this weekend as he was eight tenths faster than his title rival.
Carlos Sainz managed to split the two McLarens, he was a tenth behind his former teammate and nearly two-hundredths faster than Oscar Piastri. But despite not topping the times both McLaren’s looked very competitive with them just over a tenth off the Mercedes, and Piastri going three and a half hundredths faster than Charles Leclerc.
After missing FP1 George Russell put his Mercedes sixth nearly two-tenths behind Piastri. Russell also missed half of FP2 as his expected teammate for 2025 Kimi Antonelli crashed his car in FP1, Russell left the garage twenty-six minutes into the session and prioritised race prep over pace, while both he and Hamilton complained of hot seats in their Mercedes during a searing day in Lombardy.
This weekend is again shaping up to be a competitive one, with the top five featuring a Mercedes as well as both Ferrari’s and McLaren’s by just over a tenth and a half. While Russell was nearly two-tenths outside the top five. Following the crash in FP1, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff saying the youngster’s crash in Italy would have “zero effect” on who they select as the second Silver Arrows driver for 2025.
Nico Hulkenberg put his Haas seventh, he was over half a second behind Russell as he put the car a second and half ahead of the RB of Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo was a hundred and a half ahead of the Aston Martin’s with Fernando Alonso almost half a second faster than his teammate Lance Stroll completing the top ten.
Hulkenberg’s teammate Kevin Magnussen didn’t fair well, as halfway through the session he crashed at the second Lesmo. While he was unharmed, the following red flag led to a fifteen-minute stoppage, from where the focus appeared to then shift to the long runs.
Valtteri Bottas continued his strong day for Sauber, after going fifth in FP1, he managed eleventh four hundredths ahead of Magnussen. Alex Albon put his Williams thirteenth nearly two hundreds ahead of Verstappen.
Verstappen appeared to have a difficult afternoon, he had to abort his qualifying run on soft tyres which left him down in fourteenth after he had a snap of oversteer through the Parabolica. But the Dutchman looked quick on the race-simulation runs later in the session, pretty much neck and neck with title rival Norris.
Teammate Sergio Perez didn’t have much luck either he lost his chance to improve because of the red flag leaving him seven hundredths behind his teammate. While the sister RB of Yuki Tsunoda was nearly six hundredths behind.
Franco Colapinto ended his first full day in seventeenth half a second behind the Japanese driver. Pierre Gasly was nearly half a second faster than his Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon, with Guanyu Zhou three and a half tenths off to complete the field.