Sainz leads Verstappen in Practice 2 in Monza

Carlos Sainz ended the opening day’s running in Monza fastest ahead of Sunday’s Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.

In a more representative session, Sainz was 0.1s clear of Max Verstappen who was in turn just 0.05s quicker than Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari.

The opening practice session had been a promising one for the Scuderia, if somewhat misleading given Verstappen didn’t get a representative lap on the board.

That was underscored in Free Practice 2, even allowing for the fact Sainz and Verstappen will drop down the order once grid penalties are applied.

It was again a busy start with the medium tyre favoured by most of the field, including at Ferrari where Sainz logged a 1:23.156s.

That left him fastest initially before Verstappen managed a 1:23.021s and Leclerc with a 1:22.307s.

On a longer run, the championship leader improved to go fastest by 0.004s, all the early times set on the yellow-walled tyres.

Things remained that way until qualifying simulations began once more, with Valtteri Bottas the first to make the switch approaching the 20-minute mark.

Lando Norris moved into third best with his qualifying simulation lap, logging a 1:22.338s.

Down on his own personal best to the first split, Verstappen improved around the remainder of the lap to lower the session’s best to 1:21.807s when he moved into qualifying mode.

Shortly after crossing the line to complete that lap, the red flag was shown.

Mick Schumacher had pulled off the track on the run between the Variante della Roggia and the first Lesmo.

The Ferrari engine seemed to have cut, the German pulling to the side of the track under advice from the team.

Schumacher had sat out opening practice, Antonio Giovinazzi aboard his car, and had just nine laps to his name when his day’s running was ended.

The interruption lasted just four minutes. Sainz was on track soon after on a set of soft compound tyres.

He was slightly out of sync with the likes of Verstappen and Leclerc after the team worked on his car in the garage, paying particular attention to the left sidepod.

That resulted in the fastest lap of the session, a 1:21.664s that would stand for the balance of the session.

That was because attention turned once more to race pace; Verstappen heading back out on the medium tyres.

He remained second best to Sainz, ahead of Leclerc in third and Norris fourth.

George Russell ended the session fifth best ahead of Perez, with the balance of the 10 rounded out by Lewis Hamilton, Esteban Ocon, Fernando Alonso, and Alex Albon.

A final hour of practice remains, beginning at 13:00 CEST (07:00 ET/21:00 AEST).

Results: Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, Free Practice 2