Italian Grand Prix Practice 2 Round-up

Free practice 2 got underway with Piastri hitting the track first after being replaced by F2 driver Alex Dunne for the earlier session and soon reporting that his right mirror had "cracked" but continued on. Teammate Norris also reported he had actually "lost his right mirror" too.


4 laps in, Gasly has a snap at Ascari and went into the gravel and rejoins but the bigger news was that Kimi Antonelli bought out a red flag which was exactly not what he wanted. On the entry of Lesmo 2, the rear end has a snap and he can't recover it and spins around onto the gravel and beaches his W16. Not great for the Italian.


As the session got back underway, Bortoleto asked his team to "check the floor" , running wide at Lesmo 2 and Piastri also ran wide at that specific corner. At the moment, Verstappen took top spot with a 1.20.7 on the medium tyres, 2.5 tenths ahead of Leclerc.

Alex Albon had a massive moment at Lesmo 2 - a lot of cars pushing the absolute limit at that turn - and managed to save it but almost his entire car hit the gravel on exit. His teammate, Sainz puts in a time good enough for P1 at the moment with a 1.20.59 on mediums. 25 minutes in to FP2.

Lando Norris nearly loses his McLaren in turn 6, dipping his left tyres into the gravel but recovering back on track. With 25 minutes left of the session, Norris was P1 with a decent 1.19.878 and Sainz still in P2, a tenth back. Hamilton P3. Tsunoda found a good lap to P6 infront of the likes of Piastri ,Russell, Leclerc in P6, P7, P8 and P9 with Charles reporting "zero grip". Verstappen abandons his soft tyre run complaining about the "bumps on the track" but on his second attempt goes P4.

Again, a Williams blocks another car on a push lap this time being Stroll by Albon at Ascari. Piastri went P3, 1.8 tenths off Norris and still being Sainz; the Spanish driver having a really good day. Leclerc then turned up the Ferrari heat going 83 milliseconds behind Norris but later going off at Ascari with 8 minutes on the clock, unusually locking up the front right on entry, going straight over the gravel.

Overall, a solid day for Ferrari with an early 1-2 in FP1 and 2-5 in Fp2. The team is in the fight. McLaren still looked ever strong, maybe not in Fp1 but finding time later on with Norris' P1. Redbull and Mercedes maybe look a little behind with Verstappen off the pace and Mercedes Woe's with Antonelli's off and Russell's earlier hydraulic issues in FP1. The midfield was Corley dominated by Williams though, P2 for Sainz at the end of the day.


Bortoleto and Piastri have to see the stewards after the session the kick for a yellow flag infringement and the McLaren a pitlane infringement.

This was the full Italian Grand Prix free practice 2 result:


  

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