F1 results: Carlos Sainz fastest in Italian GP practice

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was quickest in Free Practice 1, before Sainz set the fastest time of the day in FP2 at 1m21.355s, 0.019s quicker than McLaren’s Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

The latter ended his day in the wall at the Parabolica.

Italian GP FP1 results: Verstappen fastest from Sainz

What happened in Italian GP Free Practice 1?

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri set the pace after 10 minutes with a time of 1m23.446s on soft tyres, just 0.033s faster than Verstappen on hards.

Verstappen worked down to 1m22.657s on the same tyres after 15 minutes, three tenths quicker than Ferrari's Charles Leclerc (also on hards) and four tenths up on team-mate Perez.

Perez improved to 1m22.954s just before the halfway point, 0.297s off Verstappen and 0.012s ahead of Leclerc.

Sainz set the fastest first sector on his first lap on new hards, moving up to fourth, and pushed later on the same rubber to vault to second at 1m22.703s, 0.046s slower than Verstappen. Perez got within 0.177s of the pace in third with the benefit of a tow.

Behind Leclerc, George Russell was fifth for Mercedes, half a second off the pace, from Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Norris.

Aston ran its reserve driver Felipe Drugovich in this session, and he was 18^th fastest, 1.483s off the pace.

Italian GP FP2 results: Sainz fastest from Norris

What happened in Italian GP Free Practice 2?

Lance Stroll caused an early red flag when his Aston lost power due to a fuel issue, forcing him to a halt and out of the session.

Verstappen set the early pace at the resumption, producing 1m22.259s on the medium tyre, and then trimmed that down to 1m22.244s.

Sainz grabbed P1 after 20 minutes with 1m21.565s, with Leclerc a quarter of a second slower – both on mediums. Leclerc then switched to the soft but didn’t improve.

Perez set the fastest time at 1m21.540s on softs, as Sainz ran wide at Roggia on his first soft-tyre lap. Verstappen was only third with 1m21.631s after hitting traffic in sector two.

Norris took the top spot with 1m21.374s, 0.166s quicker than Perez, before Sainz set 1m21.355s on his second push lap on the softs for the fastest time of the day.

He beat Norris by 0.019s, ahead of Perez, Piastri, a miffed Verstappen and Leclerc.

Perez spun into the wall at the Curva Alboreto, formerly the Parabolica, with nine minutes to go that caused a second red flag.