F1 Italian GP: Sainz tops FP2 from Norris as Perez crashes

Oscar Piastri nipped ahead of Max Verstappen in fourth during the session that was twice halted, with Charles Leclerc, so far the slower of the two Ferrari cars throughout practice at Monza, sixth in front of the Tifosi.

Before any drivers could set a representative time in Friday's second F1 session, the session was halted after it had barely begun due to Lance Stroll stopping his Aston Martin just past the Ascari chicane.

Having missed FP1 with Aston junior and reserve driver Felipe Drugovich driving his AMR23, Stroll was forced to stop at this point of the track with a fuel system issue.

Aston attempted to fire the car back up remotely, but Stroll was eventually forced to climb out as the red flags flew, these remaining in place until the restart with 10 minutes on the clock.

After this, Verstappen led the way with a 1m22.259s set on the medium tyres, before nearly 10 minutes later the Ferrari pair blitzed ahead, Sainz becoming the frontrunner with a 1m21.565s.

A long lull in action followed before the frontrunners headed out on the soft tyres, the Williams cars and Fernando Alonso had already sampled the red-walled rubber early in FP2 – with the times set to tumble due to the softer compound being used and the track evolving fast.

The Ferrari pair led the way at this point just past the halfway point and looked to be set to gain, with Leclerc posting a personal best on the softs but still not toppling Sainz's medium tyre time, with the Spaniard backing out of his first qualifying simulation run due to rear locking at the second chicane.

Perez therefore blasted ahead with his first softs run to post a 1m21.540s, then he towed Verstappen to the first corner before the Dutchman continued solo on his opening softs flier that ended with him still adrift of Sainz's previous benchmark.

Next through were the McLaren pair, with Norris shooting to the top of the times with a 1m21.374s, before Sainz completed a second run on the softs to finally get back to first place with a 1m21.355s.

With just over 20 minutes remaining, Verstappen, who had encountered lots of traffic at the second Lesmo on his qualifying simulation lap, requested to have a second attempt but was denied by Red Bull.

That set the leaderboard, with Alex Albon seventh for Williams but with his best time during the lower fuel running being set on the medium tyres.

This reflects the unusual run plans teams are employing as part of F1's second 2023 Alternative Tyre Allocation experiment, with Mercedes keeping Lewis Hamilton on the harder rubber and eschewing a soft tyre run.

He therefore finished down in 17th in the times and was lucky to escape an investigation from the stewards for appearing to impede Piastri at the second chicane during the early laps.

George Russell did do a soft tyre flier for Mercedes, but could only trail Alonso in eighth and ninth, as Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10.

FP2 concluded with the typical high-fuel data gathering, where several drivers – including Yuki Tsunoda, 14th for AlphaTauri – complained about traffic issues and Hamilton dipped his left-side wheels into the gravel exiting the second chicane.

But Perez had the most dramatic moment, losing the rear of his RB19 at the Parabolica with nine minutes remaining after dipping his left front wheel off the track and spinning backwards through the huge gravel trap at the long, fast and sweeping hairpin.

Perez missed most of the tyre wall as he fought the spin, but did glance the barriers with his rear wing, which escaped major damage and so the red flags came out again.

The session resumed for four final minutes, during which the order did not change.

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

       

Driver Info			Main Information Additional Data
Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	C. Sainz Carlos Sainz Ferrari	55		Ferrari	Ferrari	23	1'21.355		256.343
2	L. Norris Lando Norris McLaren	4		McLaren	Mercedes	20	+0.019	0.019	256.283
3	S. Perez Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing	11		Red Bull	Red Bull	17	+0.185	0.166	255.761
4	O. Piastri Oscar Piastri McLaren	81		McLaren	Mercedes	21	+0.190	0.005	255.745
5	M. Verstappen Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		Red Bull	Red Bull	20	+0.276	0.086	255.476
6	C. Leclerc Charles Leclerc Ferrari	16		Ferrari	Ferrari	23	+0.361	0.085	255.210
7	A. Albon Alex Albon Williams	23		Williams	Mercedes	19	+0.624	0.263	254.391
8	F. Alonso Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		Aston Martin	Mercedes	16	+0.716	0.092	254.106
9	G. Russell George Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	20	+0.821	0.105	253.782
10	N. Hulkenberg Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27		Haas	Ferrari	19	+0.936	0.115	253.427
11	K. Magnussen Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20		Haas	Ferrari	21	+1.219	0.283	252.558
12	V. Bottas Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo	77		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	19	+1.240	0.021	252.494
13	P. Gasly Pierre Gasly Alpine	10		Alpine	Renault	22	+1.296	0.056	252.323
14	Y. Tsunoda Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri	22		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	23	+1.341	0.045	252.186
15	E. Ocon Esteban Ocon Alpine	31		Alpine	Renault	22	+1.361	0.020	252.125
16	L. Sargeant Logan Sargeant Williams	2		Williams	Mercedes	24	+1.400	0.039	252.006
17	L. Hamilton Lewis Hamilton Mercedes	44		Mercedes	Mercedes	23	+1.428	0.028	251.921
18	L. Lawson Liam Lawson AlphaTauri	40		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	23	+1.812	0.384	250.758
19	Z. Guanyu Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo	24		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	20	+1.991	0.179	250.219
20	L. Stroll Lance Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		Aston Martin	Mercedes	2
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