Carlos Sainz made it a Ferrari Friday double in Italian Grand Prix Formula 1 practice at Monza by going fastest in second practice. After teammate Charles Leclerc had led FP1, Sainz responded by going quickest in the second session on Ferrari's home track. His time of a 1m:21.664s was enough to pip Max Verstappen by 0.143s in the qualifying simulation runs, as the Red Bull driver himself edged out Leclerc for second place. Leclerc was 0.193s behind his teammate, with Lando Norris and George Russell rounding out the top five.
Verstappen on top early
In the opening stages at the Autodromo, it was Verstappen who set the initial benchmark time of a 1m:23.303s on his second push lap. This had him just 0.004s clear of Leclerc as the field retreated back into the pits for the traditional mid-session lull. Fernando Alonso and Norris set early times for the qualifying simulations, but the action was red-flagged just as a majority of cars were exiting for their out laps as Mick Schumacher's Haas ground to a halt. The German, who missed FP1 in place of Antonio Giovinazzi, radioed in about a power issue, before complaining of a seized engine. His engineer told him to stop immediately just before the first Lesmo. A quick suspension of the session followed while it was recovered, with Sainz emerging from the delay to pop in his 1m:21.664s effort, nudging out the 1m:21.807s time from Verstappen. The session then settled down into the long-runs. Norris was best of the rest in fourth, less than half-a-tenth quicker than Russell. Sergio Perez was sixth and Lewis Hamilton seventh - the Mercedes the final car within a second of Sainz's benchmark.
Albon impresses again for Williams
Esteban Ocon again led teammate Alonso in the time sheets with eighth and ninth - although the Frenchman was just 0.024s clear in the #31 Alpine. Alex Albon was 10th for Williams, 1.2s clear of teammate Nicholas Latifi, as Daniel Ricciardo was narrowly outside the top 10 for McLaren. Zhou Guanyu out-paced teammate Valtteri Bottas in 12th and 13th, with it being a similar story for Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly at AlphaTauri. Bottas endured two trips off the track at the exit of the second Lesmo, cutting through the gravel as he did so. In 16th place, Kevin Magnussen was the final driver within two seconds of Sainz's time, as the two Aston Martin's struggled for pace. Running an extreme low-downforce rear-wing, Sebastian Vettel had the advantage over Lance Stroll - the four-time World Champion driving his first session of the weekend having handed over the AMR22 to Nyck de Vries in FP1. Latifi was 19th fastest, some 2.318s slower than the fastest time, as Schumacher was unable to complete a qualifying simulation after his car conked out.
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