The Latest Breaking News from C Leclerc

Sainz and Charles Leclerc had locked out the top two positions following the opening foray of laps, with the two having saved a set of soft tyres each from Q2 to use at the start of the final shootout to throw down the gauntlet to Ferrari's competitors.

Amid a series of qualifying simulations over the second half of the session as the sun began to fall, Ferrari elected to wait for the track temperature to drop a little more before sending both drivers out for their first attempts at an all-or-nothing flying lap.

The session at Monza also formed the second 2023 qualifying session run to the Alternative Tyre Allocation rules that required the drivers to run the hards throughout Q1, mediums in Q2 and softs in Q3.

Saturday's FP3 was made more intriguing, and significant, due to the ATA or alternative tyre allocation in place for this weekend.

On his 29th birthday, Sainz topped second practice by 0.019s from McLaren’s Lando Norris in an eventful session stalled by two red flags; the first early on for Lance Stroll stopping with a suspected fuel system issue in his Aston Martin and the second late in the session for Sergio Perez…

Carlos Sainz led the way for Ferrari in Friday practice, although a late red flag caused by Red Bull's Sergio Perez meant the times weren't fully representative of the pecking order.

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.

Oscar Piastri therefore nipped ahead of 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.

Verstappen closed out the opening 20 minutes of the hour-long FP1 session with a 1m22.657s, bettering his previous effort of 1m23.027s on the hard compound of tyres.