Sainz puts Ferrari on top in Italian GP second practice

Birthday boy Carlos Sainz delighted home fans by topping the second practice session for the Italian Grand Prix, the Ferrari proving two hundredths quicker than McLaren's Lando Norris with Sergio Perez third fastest before the Red Bull ended the session in the gravel at the Parabolica.

It continued to be a lovely warm late summer's day in Monza, a welcome change after the inclement conditions of recent races in northern Europe. The benign weather meant there was just one significant incident in the one-hour session.

First out were the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on mediums. Haas' Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg set forth on the hard tyres and Logan Sargeant was on the softs for Williams. The second Alternative Tyre Allocation test (first trialled in Hungary) means drivers have fewer tyres on hand this weekend, most having used only one set in FP1.

• 2023 Italian Grand Prix - Free Practice 2 results

Lance Stroll was also straight out for the first time this weekend having handed his seat to Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich in FP1. However the car suffered an immediate fuel system failure and Stroll was forced to pull off track, triggering a red flag.

The clock continued to count down as the AMR23 was removed down an escape road by the marshals, Stroll was understandably reluctant to jump out of the cockpit as it meant he failed to get a single completed lap on the timesheets on Friday.

The session resumed with 50 minutes to go, and once again Alonso was taking his time. No such rest for Max Verstappen, who picked up where he had left off at the end of first practice to top the times with a lap of 1:22.259s on mediums ahead of Alex Albon on softs, followed by Sergio Perez, Leclerc and Sainz.

There was a near miss when McLaren's Oscar Piastri came up on the rear of Lewis Hamilton's dawdling Mercedes at the della Roggia chicane. There were also congestions problems at the final corner as cars queued to get space before beginning their flying laps.

The Tifoso were delighted to see Sainz and Leclerc go top with the Spaniard's 1:21.565s almost three tenths quicker than the Monegasque. Perez succeeded in pulling ahead of Verstappen and Albon, followed by George Russell and Lando Norris as Alonso finally came out to play on softs and went third.

Hamilton was sounding unhappy in his exchanges with his race engineer as he complained about a power deficit leaving him with a 5kph straight line speed deficit (three tenths slower) to team mate Russell. Mercedes communications director Bradley Lord reported: "They tried a different wing ratio, and the straight line delta is a bit affected," but there was no time to roll back the changes in FP2.

Teams were now switching to soft tyres and gearing up for qualifying runs. Perez went top by 0.025s and offered a tow to Verstappen, but the Dutch driver hit traffic and ended up only good enough for P3 between the two Ferraris. He wanted to have another try, but was told by his race engineer: "It's not qualifying, Max" and instructed to pit ahead of commencing long distance fuel runs.

Norris took the opportunity to go top on 1:21.374s with Piastri slipping into third, but Sainz was soon back on top by 0.019s which is where he remained for the rest of the session as the majority of drivers now switched back to medium tyres for the final 20 minutes.

Perez brought out the second red flag of the session after understeering off at the Parabolica, narrowly missing a full-on high-speed impact with the tyre wall but getting beached in the gravel as he tried to rally his way out, kicking up a huge cloud of dust that drifted over interested onlookers on nearby pit lane.

The session did resume for a final four minutes. Still struggling with his wing setting, Hamilton was alone in not having gone for a soft tyre run. He even dipped a tyre off-track into the gravel at the second chicane, leaving him marooned in P17 when the chequered flag came out.

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