George Russell doubles down on Italian GP stance despite practice advantage

George Russell has reiterated that Ferrari remain the favourites for victory at the Italian Grand Prix this weekend despite his session-topping time during FP2.

The Mercedes driver ended the second practice outing marginally ahead of Charles Leclerc, hours after Ferrari topped the first practice session.

Ahead of the race weekend, Russell labelled Ferrari as the team to beat as it entered its home event with an upgrade to its engine.

After assessing the first day of on-track action, Russell has stated his view has not changed.

“Ferrari looked very competitive and they still look to be the ones to beat,” Russell said.

“We also know how strong McLaren have been recently and I have no doubt they will get themselves in the mix for tomorrow. 

“We can't count out Red Bull either. It's an encouraging opening to the weekend but it's early days. Let's see what Saturday brings.”

Russell will likely not be under significant pressure from his team-mate and title rival Kimi Antonelli this weekend, as the Italian has a grid penalty for taking on a new power unit.

Having experimented with the set-up of the cars throughout the day, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin detailed that it will study some final data before making the call on wing levels, which is often a crucial decision around Monza.

“The track grip has been surprisingly good from the start and that prompted us to drop the wing level with George going into FP2,” he said. 

“That also gave us a good cross-car compare. There is a bit of data to pick through before we make a final decision, but we've got overnight to do that analysis. 

“It certainly looks tight in terms of performance; all the teams we are fighting with have shown strong pace at various times today so we're not taking anything for granted but pleased that we seem to be in the fight.”