Monza second practice report: Carlos Sainz P3, Charles Leclerc P5 | 2024 Italian GP. Report and results from Monza FP2.

During Friday’s second free practice session for the Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Lewis Hamilton set the pace with a fastest lap of 1:20.738. The future Ferrari driver topped the charts in front of the Tifosi, with Lando Norris in his McLaren securing second place, and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz completing the top three in Monza behind the wheel of the updated SF-24 single-seater.

Red Bull struggled to put in competitive lap times during this session. Sergio Perez’s car encountered issues, while Max Verstappen’s qualifying simulation was cut short due to a red flag caused by Kevin Magnussen’s crash. As a result, the Red Bull drivers ended the session in P14 and P15. Meanwhile, Mercedes had to repair George Russell’s car after Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s earlier crash. Despite the setback, Russell managed to finish in P6, showing strong pace during his long run.

Session Summary:
The first free practice session session began with most top teams running on medium tires, except for George Russell, who had to wait while Mercedes repaired his car following Antonelli’s crash in FP1. Russell missed the first 22 minutes of FP2, having already sat out the entire FP1 session. Early in the session, Carlos Sainz led the timing sheets, ahead of Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton. Sergio Perez’s car remained in the garage initially as Red Bull engineers worked on his RB20.

Turn 1 posed challenges for several drivers, with Norris taking the escape road and both Esteban Ocon and Kevin Magnussen cutting the chicane. Charles Leclerc nearly found himself in trouble at Turn 4, putting his Ferrari SF-24 on the grass, but managed to continue without incident.

Twenty minutes into the session, the Monegasque driver was leading when frontrunners like Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton switched to soft tires. After their first laps on the softs, Lando Norris edged out his teammate, Oscar Piastri, by just 0.007 seconds. Hamilton’s first attempt on the soft tires fell short of Charles Leclerc’s time, which he attributed to not having a tow.

On his second attempt, Lewis Hamilton moved up to P1 with 30 minutes remaining. Shortly after, the session was interrupted by a red flag when Magnussen crashed at Lesmo 2, bringing the session to a halt for over 10 minutes.

When the session resumed, Sergio Perez took to the track for the first time, while the McLarens and Mercedes returned to medium tires. The session concluded with most drivers focusing on long runs on mediums, except for George Russell, who managed a flying lap on soft tires before the session ended at the Monza circuit. McLaren and Ferrari got off to a strong start after the session resumed, soon joined by Max Verstappen. During the stint, the two Woking cars and the Dutchman set the best times before their lap times began to drop. Ferrari appeared to suffer from degradation first, while Mercedes, particularly with Lewis Hamilton, took a different approach. After starting with unremarkable times, the future Ferrari driver managed to improve his lap times.

Final FP2 results