Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes at the top of the timings by just three thousandths of a second from McLaren's Lando Norris in second practice for the Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
Carlos Sainz kept the home Tifosi happy by taking third place from Oscar Piastri, while Charles Leclerc was just ahead of George Russell who lost time due to his the team completing repairs to his car after Andrea Kimi Antonelli's FP1 spin.
Sergio Perez also lost time with a gearbox replacement, and Red Bull as a whole looked distinctly off colour. All teams saw a further loss of track time due to a red flag for Kevin Magnussen spinning off at Lesmo.
First practice had seen Max Verstappen finish fastest ahead of Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, but the top of the time sheets had been somewhat eclipsed by events elsewhere. First was the debut of Franco Colapinto as a full time driver for Williams, and second was the maiden appearance in an F1 session for Andrea Kimi Antonelli in what proved a rather short cameo that did not go according to plan. Not that this should affect the plans by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff to promote him to the team in 2025 in place of the departing Lewis Hamilton.
George Russell had been obliged to step out to allow Antonelli to take part in FP1, and he was anxiously watching on as the mechanics still completing repairs to his car when the lights went green at the end of pit lane to get the one hour session underway. Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda were first out, followed by Colapinto who had acquitted himself well in the first session, a late trip across the gravel at the end of the session notwithstanding.
Everyone bar Daniel Ricciardo was initially running mediums, with Ocon opening the bidding with a time of 1:22.776s. This was immediately bettered by his Alpine team mate Pierre Gasly by nearly a tenth. Lance Stroll then moved things along in the Aston Martin, but the next big jump in performance came from Hamilton who went quickest on 1:21.641s, 0.167s ahead of Oscar Piastri's maiden run in the McLaren.
Norris' first run was somewhat baulked by Stroll but he was soon up to speed and on top by three hundredths on Hamilton, which stood until bettered by Carlos Sainz going 1:21.264s. Verstappen was unusually late in completing a flying lap: when it came it was enough to put him into a not hugely impressive third. His Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez was yet to make an appearance after a precautionary gearbox change had overrun.
Leclerc cheered the home Tifosi by joining his Ferrari team mate at the top with a time of 1:21.119s. By now, Norris had switched to the soft tyres to have a proper crack at a qualifying lap, as had Hamilton and Piastri: the Dutch GP winner duly went top on 1:20.851s by seven thousandths from Piastri, but it wasn't a huge improvement over Leclerc's time. Hamilton could only manage to split the two Ferraris after failing to find anyone to give him a tow, but there were some rapid laps from Nico Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso.
Shortly before the half hour mark, Russell and Perez finally made a move from pit lane. Both made subdued first outings putting them outside the top ten, with Russell reporting that there was something loose in his cockpit. Both he and Hamilton were also complaining of uncomfortably hot seats, but Hamilton was still able to improve to put him three thousandths ahead of Norris with Sainz now third.
The session was then suspended for a red flag after Kevin Magnussen lost the rear at turn 7, the first Lesmo, spinning him off into the gravel where he thumped nose-first into the outside tyre wall. The clock continued to count down and by the time the session resumed there was just 18 minutes remaining - not what Russell wanted to hear after having had so little track time today as a whole, leaving him bottom of the timing screens as the session got back underway.
Many cars were back out on mediums for this final stint in order to switch focus to collecting longer distance data for the race. Russell made incremental improvements but something was clearly amiss with the Mercedes and he remained a couple of seconds adrift of Colapinto, Gasly, Ocon and Zhou Guanyu, until a face-saving final five minutes on softs jumped him up to a much more representative sixth.
Perez also tried some late runs on the soft tyre, but ended up stuck in 14th. Moreover his team mate, FP1 pacesetter Verstappen, was only one place higher in what had proved to be a difficult session for Red Bull with a series of minor lock-ups and run-offs. They certainly compared poorly with their Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari rivals at the top as the chequered flag came out meaning plenty of work to do overnight.
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