Scuderia Ferrari have maintained a near-perfect start to their Italian Grand Prix weekend, with Carlos Sainz Jr. topping the timesheet and outpacing the current World Champion and leader in the championship Max Verstappen, with Charles Leclerc finishing third fastest.
Max Verstappen led the way in the RB18 for the first stint of the practice session, quickly setting a lap of 1:23.021 on the medium compound tyres, but it was Sainz who clocked an impressive 1:21.664 by the end of Free Practice 2, leading Verstappen by 0.143s. First Practice pace setter Leclerc was half a tenth slower in third. Verstappen was on track to threaten the Spaniard for that first position, but a hefty and unfortunate lock-up into Turn 1 caused the Dutchman to back off from the pace and lose valuable performance from the medium compound tyres he was running.
Lando Norris, who ran third for a brief moment in the first stint, managed to maintain the pace in his McLaren and finished the session in fourth place, ahead of George Russell and Sergio Perez. Despite Norris’ finish in fourth place the McLaren F1 Team expressed concern about the cars ‘draggy’ nature around the Monza track which seemed to affect Norris’ team-mate Daniel Ricciardo more as he finished the session in eleventh.
Thirty minutes into the session Haas driver Mick Schumacher reported a sudden loss of power, resulting in the session being red flagged with Schumacher retiring from the session and leaving his VF-22 on the side of the track. He finished the session in twentieth, over two seconds off of the pace of Sainz.
Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, who seemingly enjoyed a positive start to the Monza weekend, had both of their drivers less than happy as they tried to maintain pace in their W13. Lewis Hamilton, who finished the session in seventh place, was heard over the radio stating that his car felt ‘very unstable’ and was struggling as he entered Turn 1. Meanwhile, teammate George Russell was concerned as he experienced ‘quite a bit more bottoming on the straight’.
Hamilton is set to start this weekend’s races towards the back of the grid after a power unit change. The British driver isn’t the only one taking on grid penalties. Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz, Valterri Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda have all received grid penalties for engine and gearbox reasons ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.
Whilst Ferarri may be at the top of the time sheets, the grid penalties are sure to mix up the grid after qualifying ahead of Sunday’s race granting the other drivers advantages during this Grand Prix weekend.
