F1 Italian Grand Prix Practice results: Sainz sets pace in FP2

Red Bull’s Verstappen had led the way during the first qualifying simulation runs on soft tyres, but Sainz found improvement to set a new benchmark time around the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza with a 1m21.664s to round out Friday quickest. 

The Spaniard edged out F1 2022’s runaway championship leader by 0.143s, while Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc was third, 0.193s off the pace. 

Lando Norris was six tenths adrift as he popped his McLaren into fourth, ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, both of whom ended up 0.7s down on Sainz. 

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was a further tenth back as he took seventh, ahead of the Alpine duo of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso. 

Alex Albon was 10th for Williams as he rounded out the top-10. 

FP2 was briefly disrupted by a red flag when Mick Schumacher stopped coming out of the Variante della Roggia after his Haas car appeared to suddenly lose power. 

“I think I seized the engine or something… what happened?!” A puzzled Schumacher exclaimed over team radio. 

Leclerc got Ferrari’s home F1 race weekend off to the perfect start by leading teammate Sainz in opening practice at the Italian Grand Prix. 

Leclerc set the pace at Monza with a 1m22.410s on soft tyres to pip Sainz by less than a tenth of a second, while Mercedes’ Russell was third-quickest, two-tenths ahead of teammate Hamilton. 

Hamilton is one of several drivers who will take grid penalties this weekend for using too many engine parts, with the seven-time world champion set to start from the very back of the grid. 

There was barely anything separating Alpine pair Ocon and Alonso, with the Frenchman edging his two-time world champion teammate to fifth spot by just 0.024s. 

AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda, who will serve a 10-place grid penalty for reaching five reprimands, as well as a further drop for taking on new engine components, was eighth fastest, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, who will take a grid penalty for the third time in six races following his power unit failure at Zandvoort last time out.

Last year’s Italian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo completed the top-10 for McLaren.

Making his first FP1 appearance of the year, Antonio Giovinazzi ended up 19th and just three-tenths behind Haas regular Kevin Magnussen.

Meanwhile, Nyck de Vries stood in for Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin for FP1, making his third practice outing of the season for a third different team. The Dutchman finished 19th, nearly a second off the pace of Lance Stroll. 

Nicholas Latifi was slowest of all as he ended up 1.4s down on Williams teammate Albon, who was 11th.