George Russell turned Monza’s red grandstands quiet on Friday afternoon, as the Mercedes driver seized control of second practice for the Italian Grand Prix and knocked local hero Charles Leclerc off the top of the timesheets.
Leclerc had lit up FP1 and raised the tifosi’s hopes of a Ferrari-dominated weekend. FP2 told a different story. Once the soft tyres went on, Russell set the benchmark – twice – and no one could touch him.
Mercedes lay down an early marker
From the opening laps, the session belonged to the silver cars. Russell and his championship‑leading team‑mate Kimi Antonelli traded fastest times almost at will, with the pair effectively in a private duel while the rest of the field tried to catch up.
Russell looked sharper. On the hard compound he already had the edge, then he underlined it on the softs with two successive laps good enough for P1. Antonelli’s best effort was ruined when he caught an Audi at Parabolica at the end of his first full push lap, costing him precious time on what should have been his main benchmark.
Antonelli’s weekend is already compromised: engine-change penalties mean he will start from the back of the grid on Sunday. The raw pace is there, but the damage is done on the starting sheet.
Russell’s afternoon wasn’t entirely clean either. He ended the session warning Mercedes of a worrying suspension vibration, flagging it on the radio and leaving the team with something to investigate overnight.
Leclerc thrills, then spins
Leclerc did what he could to keep Ferrari in the fight. With just over 13 minutes remaining, long after Mercedes had moved into longer-run programmes, he bolted on the softs and split the two Mercedes drivers, pushing himself up to second and momentarily lifting the home crowd.
Then came the error.
With just under 10 minutes to go, Leclerc suffered a huge spin at the Variante della Roggia chicane. The Ferrari looped around in a cloud of tyre smoke, a dramatic moment that fortunately ended without contact but left a mark on an otherwise tidy day for the front of the grid.
The pace is encouraging for Ferrari. The margin for error at Monza, especially under the weight of expectation, is not.
Norris survives scare in Turn 1 drama
The biggest fright of the session belonged to Lando Norris. Early on, the winner of the last two grands prix found himself on the grass at Turn 1, forced wide as he tried to avoid Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin. It looked ugly for a moment and could easily have ended in contact, but Norris escaped with nothing more than a scare and a disrupted lap.
Once settled, Norris reasserted himself. He finished fourth and again had the upper hand over McLaren team‑mate Oscar Piastri, continuing a pattern that has defined recent races.
The final 10 minutes brought a fascinating subplot: Norris and Piastri ran nose-to-tail for an extended spell, clearly simulating race conditions. Same cars, similar fuel, same track – and still Norris held the advantage.
Lewis Hamilton split the McLarens in fifth. On paper, that left him a step behind Leclerc’s Ferrari despite both appearing in a similar performance window earlier in the day. Run plans, fuel loads, and engine modes muddy the picture, but on raw times alone Hamilton had work to do.
Lindblad leads a resurgent midfield
Behind the established frontrunners, Arvid Lindblad delivered one of the standout performances of FP2. The Racing Bulls driver spent much of the opening half of the session in the top three and eventually finished an impressive seventh, leading the midfield on pure pace.
Right behind him came Ollie Bearman, who maximised a rare advantage. Bearman is the only Haas driver with the upgraded Ferrari power unit this weekend. Esteban Ocon, 18th in FP2, has been prioritised for other upgrades in recent rounds, and Haas only had a single new engine to allocate.
Coupled with a fresh aero package, Haas is desperate for a reset. Six consecutive grands prix without a point have dragged the team into a slump. Bearman’s eighth place in practice isn’t a cure, but it is at least a sign of life.
Verstappen fights an unruly Red Bull
Max Verstappen finally joined the weekend in FP2 after Ayumu Iwasa drove his car in FP1. The reigning champion’s return was anything but smooth.
From the first laps, Verstappen’s radio crackled with frustration. He complained of a total lack of downforce, prompting a front wing change. That didn’t fix things. He then reported no grip in the slow corners. Then brake issues. Later still, he described the car as “jumping” on the front axle, bemoaning bouncing that left him short of confidence.
By the flag, Verstappen could do no better than ninth, tucked in behind Bearman and only just ahead of the second Racing Bulls of Yuki Tsunoda. It was a scrappy, disjointed session for a driver used to dictating the pace.
Tsunoda’s run marked his second straight outing in place of Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls, with Lawson himself continuing to stand in for the injured Isack Hadjar at Red Bull. Lawson finished 12th, behind Franco Colapinto, who delivered Alpine’s best showing of the day.
Alpine’s upgrade draws first blood
Colapinto ran Alpine’s latest upgrade package for the first time this weekend and immediately put it to good use. He ended FP2 ahead of his team‑mate and on top of the Alpine camp’s timesheets.
His session almost ended in the barriers. Late on, Colapinto slid into the gravel at the exit of Ascari and only just kept the car out of a major accident. It was a narrow escape that underlined how hard the midfield must push to find lap time at Monza.
As the sun dipped and the engines fell silent, Russell’s name remained at the top of the screens. Mercedes left the track with the fastest car of the afternoon, Ferrari with a mix of promise and anxiety, and Red Bull with a long list of problems to solve.
On Saturday, with qualifying on the line and Monza’s grandstands in full voice, those gaps will either harden into reality – or be ripped up in a single, perfect lap.
