Mercedes pair Hamilton and Bottas are once again showing their overwhelming speed at Monza this weekend.
Free practice 2 was seen as a long stint practice for all teams as they chopped and changed through the three different compound tyres.
There will be a free choice of tyres for the qualifying sprint race later this afternoon local time hence teams were doing the calculations as to which tyre is best suited for the 18 lap race.
Halfway through the session Carlos Sainz was seen stationary in the middle of the track. Coming over the radio saying: “… that was a big one.”
The Ferrari driver lost control going into the chicane at turn 9. He flew head on into the outside barrier destroying the front end of his car.
The speed he was carrying was enough to send the car spinning out of the barrier and back onto the track where he lay stranded waiting for the tow truck to arrive.
FP2 was red flagged, sending all the cars on track back into the pits. This interrupted a lot of the teams long stint analyses with limited time to collect data ahead of the sprint race and the GP on Sunday.
Sainz was alright and was moving around in the cockpit but the impact was heavy and his head moved around more than expected in the replays despite the HANS device which is supposed to reduce the movement of the helmet.
Sainz got out of his car but was sent directly to the medical car for preliminary checks.
His engineers asked if he was okay over the radio and he replied: “yes, but that hurt a bit! I’m okay.”
Ferrari will now be rushing to check the car and repair it for the sprint race 3 hours later.
It was not clear how much damage Sainz car sustained but certainly the front end was destroyed.
Commentators speculated whether the monocoque was affected which would be a more serious consequence and could possibly retract Sainz from running in the sprint.
Other than the hefty Ferrari crash, it was normal running for the rest of the grid with Hamilton and Bottas showing promising speed ahead of the sprint race where they have locked out the front row.
Here are how the cars classified for FP2:
| POS | DRIVER | TIME |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | 1:23.246 |
| 2 | Valtteri Bottas | 1:23.468 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | 1:23.662 |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | 1:23.917 |
| 5 | Esteban Ocon | 1:24.263 |
| 6 | Robert Kubica | 1:24.280 |
| 7 | Antonio Giovinazzi | 1:24.502 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | 1:24.539 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | 1:24.654 |
| 10 | Lando Norris | 1:24.665 |
| 11 | Charles Leclerc | 1:24.770 |
| 12 | Daniel Ricciardo | 1:24.774 |
| 13 | Nicholas Latifi | 1:24.805 |
| 14 | George Russell | 1:25.083 |
| 15 | Yuki Tsunoda | 1:25.422 |
| 16 | Nikita Mazepin | 1:25.729 |
| 17 | Lance Stroll | 1:25.763 |
| 18 | Sebastian Vettel | 1:25.935 |
| 19 | Mick Schumacher | 1:26.012 |
| 20 | Carlos Sainz | 1:26.124 |
Featured image source: twitter.com/f1
