MONZA: Free Practice 2 Report

Free practice 2 was a very hot session with air temperature reaching 33C and track temperature being a scorching 56C.

At the start of the session Antonelli was notably quickest on the hard compound, ahead of Charles Leclerc on the mediums. This is some interesting data as it suggests that either the hard compounds warm up relatively quickly and are a fast tire for this weekend, or Ferrari’s engine could be turned down a notch in comparison to Mercedes.

Alonso was once again garage bound at the start of the session due to front wing issues but he was let out with around 43 minutes of the session remaining.

Arvid Lindblad put in a brilliant lap early on in the session, putting himself into third on the medium compound.

The turn one runoff got plenty of use in FP2 as Albon, Leclerc, Norris and Hamilton all had to take to it following lock ups or incidents. Norris took to the run off area after Lance Stroll completely cut him off into the chicane, causing the race director to note the incident which will be investigated after the session.

Antonelli was one of the firsts to go onto the softs, but he was audibly annoyed over the radio saying ‘Wow, what an idiot’ as he met traffic of the Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto into the Parabolica and had to back out.  He pitted and went back out to briefly set the fastest lap, which was then beaten by George Russell who had also moved onto the softs.

Charles Leclerc slotted in between the Mercedes drivers on his soft lap run

The drivers proceeded to close the session on long runs in which they were following each other closely to gather following data. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris worked together and followed each other closely for many laps at the end of FP2 meanwhile Verstappen, Antonelli and Tsunoda stayed in a gaggle as they learnt about energy management while following and how the cars were reacting to the air of the car ahead. During these runs Antonelli was complaining about a lot of understeer. These runs in dirty air are especially crucial for Kimi Antonelli as he will start from the back of the grid following his new engine so this data is very important for his weekend.

In the closing stages Bortoleto’s engine had issue which forced him into the pits and out of the car. This is concerning for Audi as Bortoleto has a new Power Unit this weekend so having a problem after one day of running is not a good sign.

Colapinto then nearly threw his Alpine into the wall after hitting the gravel on the exit of Ascari. Luckily he saved it and kept his car going straight but it was definitely a scary moment as the session timer wound down.

The top 10 from FP2 are as follows:

1. Russell
2. Leclerc
3. Antonelli
4. Norris
5. Hamilton
6. Piastri
7. Lindblad
8. Bearman
9. Verstappen
10. Tsunoda