Lewis Hamilton demonstrated promising single lap speed, though his long run speed was down a second over McLaren’s pace.
It was another session interrupted by a red flag, this time for Kevin Magnussen who spun at the second Lesmo.
A late afternoon start time saw the track some 10 degrees cooler than it had been in Free Practice 1.
A gearbox change following Free Practice 1 delayed Sergio Perez’s entry into the session.
He only emerged shortly after George Russell, whose Mercedes had been rebuilt following Kimi Antonelli’s crash in Free Practice 1.
The pair were on track just prior to the half-hour marker in what were Russell’s first laps of the weekend.
He reported a hot seat, a complaint shared by Hamilton, as he appeared to work on race pace rather than qualifying performance.
Hamilton did complete a qualifying run, the seven-time champ benefitting from a tow from Lance Stroll to bank a 1:20.738s.
On his long run in the latter stages of the session, he lacked a second a lap over the McLarens, suggesting engine mode or program differences between the two teams.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris signalled the start of the qualifying simulations after 20 minutes of the session.
Piastri logged a 1:20.858s, inched by his teammate by 0.007s moments later.
While it left the pair at the top of the timesheets at the time, it was only just over a quarter of a second ahead of third-best Leclerc, whose time came on the mediums after around 15 minutes.
Both McLaren drivers completed their laps without the benefit of a tow, costing them around 7km/h down the long straights.
Another run from Norris saw the Brit improve, though only marginally, with a 1:20.741s.
An early run on softs flattered Daniel Ricciardo, who rose to sixth in the early moments as the bulk of the field ran on medium tyres.
The Australian is without the RB upgrade package fitted to Yuki Tsunoda’s car – the Japanese driver given priority based on his standing in the championship.
The soft tyre is not expected to feature in the race and is instead set to be used purely in qualifying, though Ricciardo’s effort was comparatively pedestrian – 1:21.842s which compared to Charles Leclerc’s 1:21.119s on the medium tyres at around the same time.
RB did leave Ricciardo out on the soft tyre later in the session, his halo coated in flo vis paint as he completed a longer run in the last quarter of an hour.
An unusual off for Kevin Magnussen saw the Dane nose into the Tecpro barrier exiting the second Lesmo.
For the second time in the day, the red flag was shown.
The Haas driver lost the back end midway through the right-hander, completing a full rotation through the gravel before nosing into the barrier, plucking the left-front from the car in the process.
Magnussen had recorded 11 laps up to that point.
At the restart that followed, the focus was long race pace for the remaining 19 runners, who saw out the session without further incident.
It did however highlight the potential of a four-team battle for pole position, with Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari showing well.
Red Bull Racing kept its powder dry, Verstappen outside the top 10, one place ahead of Perez, Red Bull Racing not completing a meaningful soft tyre run.
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