Lewis Hamilton led a very tight top five after Max Verstappen failed to string together a clean lap in second practice at the Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton set the benchmark at 1m20.738s early in the session before switching to race runs, which were less impressive relative to the field and characterized by several complaints about an overheating seat. The time was only just enough to take top spot for Hamilton, with the top five cars — all from the front-running four teams — separated by just 0.154s.
Lando Norris was next in the order, the McLaren driver just 0.003s adrift, while Carlos Sainz generated optimism for Ferrari’s home crowd by lapping exactly 0.1s further back.
Oscar Piastri briefly looked set to blitz the field on his qualifying run in the first 15 minutes, his McLaren claiming the fastest time in the first two sectors, but the Australian failed to improve on even his personal-best time in the final split, leaving him 0.12s off the pace in fourth. Had he combined his first two purple sectors with his personal best time in the third sector, he’d have leapt up to third in the order.
Charles Leclerc completed the top five group in his Ferrari, 0.154s off the pace.
George Russell joined the leading pack in sixth with a late lap on softs in his rebuilt Mercedes. The Briton lost the first 22 minutes of the session to the final phase of the significant repairs required for his Mercedes after young gun Andrea Kimi Antonelli heavily crashed at Parabolica early in FP1.
Russell spent most of his truncated session on race runs, bolting on the soft tire only in the final five minutes, making his lap an unrepresentative 0.348s slower than his teammate’s headline lap. But his time was at least closer to the mark than the efforts from both Verstappen and Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing, neither of whom was able to string together a clean lap.
Verstappen’s qualifying simulation run was spoiled by a snap at Parabolica that ruined the lap. He ended the session 14th and 0.872s off the pace, his best lap one he completed on mediums.
Perez, meanwhile, lost the first 23 minutes of the hour-long session to system checks following a precautionary gearbox change made between sessions, leaving him 15th.
Heading the midfield was Nico Hulkenberg, who was seventh in lieu of Red Bull Racing. He finished 0.16s ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll completing the top 10.
Valtteri Bottas was 11th ahead of the crashed-out Kevin Magnussen, who triggered a 12-minute red flag halfway through the session when he carried too much speed into the second Lesmo and spun off the road. His Haas skipped over the gravel before crashing into the barriers with his left-front corner, his afternoon ending on the spot.
Alex Albon was 13th ahead of the Red Bull Racing pair.
Yuki Tsunoda was 16th in his upgraded RB, lapping 0.435s slower than teammate Ricciardo despite the Australian not benefiting from the full update package.
Debutant Franco Colapinto was 17th for Williams and only 0.192s slower than new teammate Albon.
Alpine pair Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were 18th and 19th ahead of Zhou Guanyu at the back of the pack.
