Formula 1: Norris pips Leclerc and Sainz to top second practice at Monza

Monza (Italy), Sep 5 (IANS) Lando Norris was really quick as he topped the timesheets during the second free practice session for the Italian Grand Prix on Friday, leading the way from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Williams’ Carlos Sainz.

Hamilton ended fifth behind Oscar Piastri as Norris led the way.

All 20 cars were quick to emerge from their garages when the green light switched on at the end of the pit lane, with Piastri reclaiming his McLaren from F2 racer Alex Dunne and Franco Colapinto taking his Alpine back from reserve Paul Aron following their FP1 outings.

Despite a cracked mirror, Piastri posted the fastest time of the opening minutes with a 1m 21.212s, before team mate Norris, who had coincidentally lost one of his mirrors, lowered the benchmark to a 1m 21.012s – both drivers initially running medium tyres.

Drama then ensued when Alpine driver Pierre Gasly went too deep entering the Ascari chicane, ran through the gravel and littered stones over the track, before Antonelli lost control of his Mercedes through Lesmo 2, beached it at the exit, and caused a red flag.

A brief stoppage followed as marshals cleared Antonelli’s car, allowing McLaren to carry out some mirror repairs on Piastri and Norris’ cars, with 45 minutes remaining on the FP2 clock when Race Control declared that the circuit was clear once more.

Further runs on Pirelli’s medium and hard compound tyres duly triggered a flurry of changes at the top of the times – Leclerc clocking a 1m 20.937s, Max Verstappen producing a 1m 20.710s, and Sainz getting down to a 1m 20.583s.

Around halfway into the session, drivers began to make the switch to the soft tyres, bringing a new pace-setting effort of 1m 19.878s from Norris, despite the Briton being forced to abandon his first lap on the red-marked rubber via a moment exiting the Roggia chicane.

Leclerc and Verstappen experienced troubles of their own on the soft rubber; Leclerc running wide exiting Lesmo 2 and reporting “no grip at all – like zero”; and Verstappen reporting that his car was becoming “really jumpy” and “really nervous on every little bump”.

--IANS

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