F1: Sainz Jr. tops Practice 2 for Italian GP

To the cheers of the Ferrari fans surrounding Monza, Carlos Sainz Jr. turned a lap of 1m21.664s on his #55 Ferrari to top Practice 2 of the Italian GP at Monza.

So that is two sessions and two Ferrari cars in the P1 slot.

Championship leader Max Verstappen was 0.143s behind in his Red Bull Honda.  Both he and Sainz will get grid penalties, Verstappen 5 place, Sainz will start near the back.

Charles Leclerc was 3rd quick for Ferrari, just a tad behind Verstappen and 0.193s behind his teammate.

Lando Norris was 4th quick in his McLaren, 0.674s behind.

George Russell rounded out the top-5 for Mercedes and just ahead of the 2nd Red Bull Honda of Sergio Perez.

So Sainz in P1 and Verstappen in P2 are both carrying grid penalties, leaving it as a virtual leaderboard of Leclerc from Norris and Russell. That would be an entertaining top three come qualifying, but there is still plenty of running to go between now and then.

Perez in P6 and Hamilton in P7 also have grid penalties looming for Sunday’s race, meaning the next driver up the road is Ocon for Alpine, who finished just ahead of his teammate. Those two were only split by 0.024s in that session, which means it could be a hard-fought intra-team battle for grid slots tomorrow.

So, Ferrari seem to be the team to beat here, with the caution that Verstappen and Perez are carrying grid drops and thus might be running slightly unconventional programs here. All of which should please the Tifosi, who are expected to turn out in huge numbers across the weekend.

Practice 2 Results