George Russell beat Leclerc to the top of the second practice session at the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc topped the times in FP1 in front of the Tifosi, with teammate Lewis Hamilton just behind. But it was George Russell who came out on top in FP2.
The Mercedes driver needs a strong weekend in Monza. His teammate is 59 points ahead in the Driver’s Championship but will start at the back of the grid in Sunday’s race, so he will be hoping to keep his FP2 momentum going throughout the weekend to make a dent in that gap.
FP2 as it happened
Max Verstappen was straight out on the medium tyre, ready to get some track time having given up his car for Ayumu Iwasa in FP1. Many teams had opted for mediums in the early stages of practice, but a number of cars, including both Mercedes and McLarens, were on hard tyres.
Kimi Antonelli set an early benchmark of a 1:23.417 before heading back to the pits. After a front wing change for Verstappen, the Dutchman was still half a second off Antonelli’s pace. However, Russell was able to best his championship rival by two tenths.
A quarter of the way through FP2, stewards noted an incident between Norris and Stroll. The reigning world champion was forced into run off area after the Aston Martin cut onto the racing line whilst exiting the pitlane.
Soft tyre runs start
Whilst Red Bull looked to gain time with Lawson running the soft tyre, Arvid Lindblad put in an impressive 1:23.468 to jump up to third fastest. The Racing Bulls driver was only a few hundreds of a second behind the Mercedes, who continued to lead the session.
George Russell began a flying lap on softs on an almost empty track, just a Red Bull and an Alpine for company as he beat his teammate’s soft tyre lap time to sit at the top of the timesheet again.
After making up the latter half of a Ferrari 1-2 in FP1, Lewis Hamilton was in the lower end of the top 10 for most of FP2 until shooting up to P4 at the halfway point of the session. Leclerc was briefly the fastest car on track after his first soft tyre run, but Russell was quick to take the top spot back with a 1:22.559.
In the closing stages of the session, Charles Leclerc dipped a tyre into the gravel and took a spin. Luckily, he was able to keep it out of the barriers and drove on without any serious damage. Also, Gabriel Bortoleto was called into the pits, as there seemed to be an issue with the newly fitted Internal Combustion Engine in his Audi.
Franco Colapinto had a moment, bouncing over the kerbs and through the gravel, but he was also able to save his car from hitting any barriers.
It was Russell on top at the end of FP2, followed by Charles Leclerc and home hero Kimi Antonelli.
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