Carlos Sainz ensured Ferrari completed a Friday sweep as he went quickest in Practice 2 at the Italian Grand Prix.
The Spaniard posted the best time of 1m21.664s just after a mid-session red flag caused by a power unit issue for Mick Schumacher, who came to a stop shortly before the Lesmo bends.
That lap put Sainz a tenth-and-a-half clear of Max Verstappen in second for Red Bull, who competed his soft tyre run just before the Haas stoppage.
Despite a few trips across the chicanes on other laps in FP2, Charles Leclerc was just 0.05s behind the championship leader in third, with the top three finishing well ahead of the pack.
Lando Norris was an unexpected fourth for McLaren, having also done his lap just before the red flag.
That put him ahead of the two Mercedes’ with Sergio Perez sandwiched between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in sixth.
It was a tricky session for the Silver Arrows as both cars struggled with optimising ERS deployment, while Hamilton complained of instability from his W13.
Alpine’s expected strong pace continued with Esteban Ocon again fractionally ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso in eighth and ninth.
Alex Albon also demonstrated Williams’ good performance on the straights in 10th.
Daniel Ricciardo was 11th, followed by the two Alfa Romeos and two AlphaTauri’s in P12-P15.
Kevin Magnussen was 16th to cap off a tricky day for Haas ahead of the two Aston Martins and Nicholas Latifi in 19th.
Schumacher finished slowest with just nine laps to his name all day after handing his car to Antonio Giovinazzi in FP1.
At the front, Ferrari appears more competitive against Red Bull than expected. And with Verstappen, Perez and Sainz all taking grid penalties too, Leclerc is in the pound seats looking ahead to Saturday at Monza.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
FP2 CLASSIFICATION
Carlos Sainz tops the charts in FP2#ItalianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/lzkNh14OIt
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 9, 2022
