George Russell Dominates FP2 at Monza
George Russell shattered Ferrari’s early optimism at Monza on Friday afternoon, snatching top spot in second practice and silencing the tifosi – at least for now.
The Mercedes driver clocked a 1m22.559s in the heat of a mid-session shootout, edging out Charles Leclerc and his own team-mate Kimi Antonelli in a flurry of soft-tyre laps that briefly turned FP2 into a qualifying dress rehearsal.
Russell wins the Monza shootout
For 20 minutes, FP2 drifted along on hard tyres, the field lapping without real urgency, Russell quietly leading even that phase. Then the red-walled Pirellis appeared, and the session snapped into life.
Antonelli lit the fuse first. On his initial push lap on softs, the young Italian lit up the first sector but found a wall of traffic at the Parabolica and had to abandon the effort. His next run was cleaner, the Mercedes finally unleashed to a 1m22.700s that put him on top and sent a murmur through the paddock.
Russell replied immediately, chiselling that down to a 1m22.686s. Leclerc, who had topped FP1 and carried Ferrari hopes into the afternoon, answered with a 1m22.679s to reclaim the benchmark and briefly restore the roar in the grandstands.
It lasted only moments.
Russell went again, this time with a lap that had a touch of authority about it: 1m22.559s. No one got close after that. Once the headline times were banked, the field peeled off into long-run work, leaving the Briton’s name fixed at the top of the timesheets, with Leclerc second and Antonelli third.
Norris lurking, Ferrari solid but not supreme
Behind the top three, Lando Norris quietly kept his streak of form alive. The reigning world champion, winner of the last two grands prix, ended the session fourth, about four tenths off Russell. He never quite hooked up a lap to threaten the Mercedes, yet his pace looked ominously consistent.
Lewis Hamilton slotted into fifth in the second Ferrari, just ahead of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. On paper, Ferrari had both cars in the top five at home. On the stopwatch, Russell still had the upper hand.
Young guns shine for Racing Bulls and Haas
Arvid Lindblad made sure his name stayed on everyone’s lips. The Racing Bulls driver briefly ran as high as third in the early stages, then settled into seventh by the flag – an eye-catching effort on a day when the established frontrunners hogged the spotlight.
Oliver Bearman delivered something even more valuable for Haas: encouragement. He dragged the struggling team into eighth place, a result that will give the American outfit at least a sliver of optimism heading into Saturday.
Between them, they underlined a theme of the afternoon: the new generation refusing to stay in the background.
Verstappen plays catch-up on tricky Red Bull day
For Max Verstappen, FP2 was effectively the start of his weekend. He had surrendered his Red Bull to reserve driver Ayumu Iwasa in FP1 for a mandatory rookie outing, so his first meaningful laps came under the glare of the afternoon sun.
They were not comfortable.
Lap after lap, Verstappen chased a balance that never quite arrived. A front wing flap change failed to unlock the car, and the RB22 looked a long way from the ruthless, planted machine that has defined so many Fridays in recent seasons.
He finished only ninth, the leading Red Bull but far from the sharp end, with Racing Bulls stand-in Yuki Tsunoda rounding out the top 10. Tsunoda, back at his former team for a second consecutive weekend as Liam Lawson steps in for the injured Isack Hadjar at Red Bull, kept himself firmly in the mix. Lawson himself ended the session 12th, just behind Alpine’s Franco Colapinto.
Incidents and alarms: Leclerc spin, Stroll under scrutiny, Audi worry
The day was not without drama.
Leclerc provided one of the few genuine heart-in-mouth moments when he spun at the second chicane, the rear of his Ferrari snapping over the high sausage kerbs. He escaped without damage, but it was a sharp reminder of how unforgiving Monza’s layout can be when drivers flirt with the limits.
Lance Stroll faces a sterner reckoning. As the Aston Martin emerged from the pitlane, the Canadian drifted lazily into the path of a charging Norris, who had to jink away to avoid a collision. The move looked clumsy at best, dangerous at worst, and the FIA stewards will examine it after the session.
There was concern, too, in the Audi garage. Gabriel Bortoleto’s run plan was cut short when his V6 began to sound decidedly unhealthy, forcing the Brazilian to park the car and leaving the team with an unwelcome reliability question heading into the rest of the weekend.
By the end of FP2, the picture at the top was clear enough. Mercedes, at least on Friday, had the speed to spoil Ferrari’s party. Russell had the lap to prove it.
Now the question is whether that one searing time was a glimpse of qualifying – or just the opening move in a very long game at Monza.
