Ferrari continued to show encouraging form in FP2 at the 2026 Italian Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc finishing second, just 0.120 seconds behind George Russell, while Lewis Hamilton ended the session fifth at 0.457 seconds from the Mercedes driver. After the Scuderia’s one-two in first practice, the second hour of running at Monza provided further signs that Ferrari could be in contention for an important result at its home Grand Prix.
The picture is still far from definitive, with FP3 and qualifying yet to come, but Ferrari has now looked competitive across both Friday sessions. That follows Ferrari’s strong FP1 performance at Monza, when Charles Leclerc topped the times ahead of Lewis Hamilton and the SF-26 immediately appeared to have found a promising operating window.
Ferrari confirms positive Monza FP2 pace
The first free practice session had ended with Charles Leclerc first and Lewis Hamilton second, giving Ferrari an excellent start to the weekend. In terms of outright performance, however, FP1 revealed relatively little because the teams were still working through different programmes, fuel loads and settings.
Towards the end of that opening session, Ferrari also completed race-pace simulations. Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli recorded the same average lap time across their respective runs, while McLaren was also very close to the other leading teams. Those figures already suggested that the battle at Monza could be extremely tight.
Ferrari began FP2 on the medium compound with both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. After their first flying attempts, both drivers returned to the pits for adjustments to the front wing angle. Charles Leclerc opted to add three points of front-wing load as the Maranello team continued refining the SF-26 set-up.
The Monegasque was not completely comfortable, particularly through the opening two corners. Race engineer Bryan Bozzi advised Charles Leclerc to alter the brake balance using settings on the steering wheel as Ferrari worked to improve the car’s behaviour through that part of the circuit.
At the end of the opening stint, Charles Leclerc sat fourth, almost three tenths behind George Russell. Lewis Hamilton was ninth at that stage, around six tenths away from the Mercedes driver’s benchmark.
Leclerc challenges Russell when Ferrari switches to soft tyres
For the second stint, Ferrari used the soft compound for the first time during the Italian Grand Prix weekend. The red-walled tyre immediately gave a clearer indication of the SF-26’s performance.
After his first attempt on the softs, Charles Leclerc moved to the top of the timesheets, beating George Russell by just seven thousandths of a second. Lewis Hamilton was further back in fourth place, approximately three tenths behind his Ferrari team-mate.
Charles Leclerc then requested another adjustment to the front wing angle after completing his flying lap. George Russell subsequently responded and reclaimed first position, eventually establishing an advantage of 0.120 seconds over the Ferrari driver.
The competitive performance comes after Ferrari arrived at Monza with considerable attention on the engine and floor developments Charles Leclerc evaluated ahead of the Italian Grand Prix. Friday’s running is providing the first meaningful track evidence of how well that package performs in real conditions.
Ferrari race pace remains encouraging despite Leclerc spin
As usual, the final part of FP2 was devoted to race simulations. Ferrari chose the soft tyres for both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, while Mercedes and McLaren followed different strategies by running the harder compound.
That difference makes a direct comparison between the leading teams impossible at this stage. Nevertheless, Ferrari’s own running produced more encouraging signs.
Charles Leclerc suffered a spin after coming off a kerb, but the incident had no consequences for the Ferrari driver or his car. Despite the moment, the number 16 SF-26 continued to show very good pace during the long run.
Lewis Hamilton also produced a consistent sequence of lap times, reinforcing the positive impression surrounding Ferrari’s Friday programme. With the teams using different tyre compounds, however, it would be premature to establish a precise race-pace hierarchy from FP2 alone.
Ferrari’s Friday performance is particularly significant given the work carried out to prepare the SF-26 specifically for Monza. The team has brought a broader Italian Grand Prix upgrade package aimed at improving Monza efficiency, while the characteristics of the circuit also place particular emphasis on the latest Ferrari SF-26 Power Unit developments.
Can Ferrari fight for a major result at the Italian GP?
The second practice session therefore reinforced the positive impression surrounding Ferrari. If the competitive picture remains similar through the rest of the weekend, the Scuderia appears capable of fighting for something important at its home Grand Prix.
There is still good reason for caution. FP3 will provide another opportunity for the teams to optimise their cars before qualifying offers the first definitive assessment of outright performance. Different tyre choices in the long runs also mean Ferrari’s race pace cannot yet be compared directly with Mercedes and McLaren.
So far, Mercedes has arguably been the most convincing overall, with George Russell finishing Friday at the front, but Ferrari is not far away. Charles Leclerc’s deficit of only 0.120 seconds underlined just how close the two teams currently appear, while Lewis Hamilton also remained within half a second of the benchmark.
McLaren looked somewhat further away overall and has not yet appeared to find the ideal balance required to extract the full potential of the MCL40. That situation could still change considerably as the weekend develops.
For Ferrari, however, the first day at Monza has delivered exactly the type of indications the team would have wanted. A one-two in FP1 was followed by second and fifth places in FP2, while both short-run and long-run performance produced encouraging signs. The decisive answers will come in FP3 and qualifying, but the Scuderia heads into Saturday with genuine reasons to believe it can remain involved in the fight at the front.
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