Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz were the ones to beat in the opening practices of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, while Liam Lawson completed 53 laps over the day to finish FP1 in 13th and FP2 in 18th.
Lawson’s best time of 1:23.833 in FP1 was 1.176 seconds behind championship leader Verstappen, who topped the time sheet. The Kiwi completed 29 laps of the hour-long practice without issue, most of his running done on soft tyres.
Ferrari appears to have made a step up on pace for their home event, with Sainz going second quickest, only 0.046 seconds behind Verstappen’s session-best time of 1:22.657. Sergio Perez was third fastest, and Charles Leclerc was fourth.
George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon rounded out the top ten.
Sainz would go one better in FP2, leading the session with a 1:21.355. Two red flags limited track time for the field, the first coming when Lance Stroll, who had sat out FP1 for Felipe Drugovich, came to a stop on track, and the second called for when Perez spun at Parabolica, the rear of his car scraping the barriers.
Despite the interruptions, Lawson completed 23 laps in FP2, his best time of 1:23.167 an improvement of seven-tenths from FP1 to sit 18th.
Norris was second fastest, only 0.019 seconds behind Sainz, while Perez was third, despite his late incident. Oscar Piastri made it two McLarens in the top four, ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc, respectively, the former complaining of issues with traffic throughout the session, as did several others.
Formula 1 returns at 10.15 pm tonight for FP3, ahead of qualifying coverage, which begins from 1.15 am.
The Italian Grand Prix begins at 1.00 am on Monday.
Header Image: Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool
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