F1 Italian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP2
Friday's closing action from the 16th round of the 2024 Formula 1 season
Max Verstappen was fastest in the opening session of the weekend at Monza but who will top the second outing?
FP2 gets under way at 4pm BST.
Live Text
Leclerc's onboard camera shows just how well the Ferrari is working here.
A 1m21.119s vaults him to the top of the timings.
Ricciardo has done a very handy lap in the RB to slot into fifth, short-lived though as Sainz goes fastest and Verstappen into third.
The Ferrari is now three-tenths up on Norris.
The Dane wasn't the only one to make that mistake as two cars ahead of him, Ocon sent his Alpine across the same get-out-of-jail-free route.
Colapinto also locked-up but did make the corner.
Magnussen couldn't get the braking point right into Turn 1 and bumped his way back onto the racetrack-proper. You can tell drivers are pushing the limits on the new track surface.
Leclerc crosses the line again to go up to fourth - Verstappen on mediums looks like he is doing a double warm-up lap, either that or he is doing a constant speed test down the main straight as he crawls over the line.
Here is Norris at the end of his first attempt and a 1m21.605s puts him 0.036s faster than Hamilton.
Piastri has jumped to second and Sainz is up to fourth but a reminder that these runs on mediums are far from representative.
Only now do Norris, Verstappen and Ricciardo exit the pits, with Perez and Russell still in the garage.
A huge mess as Bottas comes across two slow-moving cars in Norris and Stroll at the first chicane, with the Sauber and McLaren skipping through the escape road.
Zhou, Tsunoda and Bottas are slower than the Williams but they are plummeting as Hamilton sets the fastest time so far, heading Magnussen and Albon.
Russell is still in the garage, watching along with Wolff on the monitors.
It's not bad at all from the Argentine, who slots into fourth as Stroll and both Alpines go into the top three.
OK, now the track is pretty busy so finding space will be critical when learning for qualifying.
Colapinto is the first to cross the first timing line, let's see what he can do on the yellow-walled Pirellis.
Not the usual hive of activity we see at the start of a session, but there are cars on track, mostly on medium tyres.
FP2 is green!
Somewhat a sideshow with the focus on Antonelli was Franco Colapinto's first showing as a Williams race driver.
The Argentine had a moment at the final corner near the end of the session but escaped without damage.
So it was Verstappen that topped the timesheets in the first hour of running on a weekend Red Bull is expected to bounce back from its Zandvoort issues, given Monza's track characteristics.
What will FP2 tell us?
Away from the on-track action but just as important is the ongoing turmoil at Alpine.
A peaceful protest is taking place at the circuit from staff unhappy with the plans to switch to Mercedes engines from 2026.
There's a lot of work going on on Russell's car, but it does look as though he will be ready for the session.
Unsurprisingly, Toto Wolff has backed the youngster...
Full story here - Wolff backs Antonelli after crash on Mercedes FP1 debut
Andrea Kimi Antonelli made his Mercedes F1 debut in FP1 with much fanfare around his appearance.
After initially running fastest, a crash in the early stages left the team with plenty of work to do for the afternoon.
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Hello and welcome back to coverage of the Italian Grand Prix weekend.
Max Verstappen was fastest in the opening hour of running, though he wasn't the big story of the session...
By: Autosport Staff
