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Commentary

Live: F1 Italian GP commentary and updates - FP1 & FP2

Follow live Formula 1 updates on all of the Friday action at Monza ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen comes into the final European race of the season on red-hot form with four consecutive wins, which has seen him stretch his F1 world championship lead to 109 points.

It means the pressure increases on home favourites Ferrari and Charles Leclerc who need a strong performance after a tough run of races.

A host of F1 drivers will take grid penalties into the race, headlined by Lewis Hamilton who will start from the back of the grid for taking an new power unit, after his third one was damaged in his first-lap clash with Fernando Alonso at the Belgian GP.

 

By: Haydn Cobb, James Newbold, Jake Boxall-Legge, Stefan Mackley

Summary

Summary
- Sainz fastest in F1 Italian GP second practice from Verstappen and Leclerc 
- Red-flag deployed just before halfway point after Schumacher stops on track
- Ferrari on top in FP1, with Leclerc leading Sainz ahead of the two Mercedes
- FP3 takes place on Saturday at 1200 BST (1300 local time)
Leaderboard
  1. Sainz, Ferrari
  2. Verstappen, Red Bull
  3. Leclerc, Ferrari
  4. Norris, McLaren
  5. Russell, Mercedes
  6. Perez, Red Bull
  7. Hamilton, Mercedes
  8. Ocon, Alpine
  9. Alonso, Alpine
  10. Albon, Williams
Status: Stopped
And that's all from us on Live today, thanks for joining us through both practice sessions! We'll be back tomorrow for FP3 and qualifying.
Tsunoda's failing to slow for yellows citation will now be investigated by the stewards. Reprimand No. 6 incoming?
That's Sainz from Verstappen from Leclerc in the top three, with Norris fourth and Russell fifth.
And there's the chequered flag, bringing an end to Friday's practice runs.
Leclerc's decided to have another look at the Turn 1 slalom challenge, as we tick down into the final seconds of the session...
Tsunoda's had an incident noted for failing to slow for yellow flags at Turn 5.
Leclerc's exploring the limits of the track - and some of the run-off down at Turn 1. He has a good look at the barriers he has to slalom his way through too.
We've got all 19 cars still in this session out on track - Zhou comes through the pitlane but he's back on the road again. A full mix of tyres being tested at Monza, which we're hoping brings a range of strategies for Sunday.
Russell continues to report areas of improvement for Mercedes, feeding back that "deployment is a bit all over the place at the moment". Engineer Riccardo Musconi says it's the same for both cars.
Sainz has emerged from the pits for the final 15 minutes on mediums now. Ocon is exploring the hard compound, and he's the only one to do so.
"Quite a bit more bottoming down the straight," Russell reports over the radio as he hurls his bouncy Mercedes around the Monza circuit.
Verstappen, Norris and Hamilton bolt on mediums, and it looks like their focus is already on the race runs. Alonso, Zhou, Magnussen and Tsunoda follow suit.
And indeed, Sainz does a 1m21.664s on the softs to go top.
The runs on softs continue, so we expect to see a few more changes in the timesheets before the teams switch onto race runs. Sainz seems to be on a quick one.
And the session has reopened, and there's a few takers for the top of the final 25 minutes.
 
"I think I seized the engine, I don't know what happened," Schumacher says. Gary Gannon tells his man to calmly pull over and park up.
And there's a red flag! Mick Schumacher has come to a stop at the side of the road before the first Lesmo.
Verstappen then pumps in a 1m21.807s to go top, finding a great deal of pace in the middle sector.
Albon goes sixth with his own soft-tyre lap, so Williams has a bit of poke in the straight lines.
Lots more takers for the soft rubber now, and Norris seems to be on a decent time. Let's see...and it's a 1m22.338s, enough for the McLaren driver to go P3. Alonso went fourth prior to that lap from Norris.
The Haas duo has broken the silence and come out on track - Magnussen and Schumacher both on softs for the next phase of their run plan.
There's a little lull now as we come to the end of the first 20 minutes of the session - and the order is Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Perez, Bottas, Russell, Tsunoda, Hamilton, Alonso and Ocon.
Russell displaces Perez in P5, as Tsunoda is now up to seventh in the times. But Perez now finds some time and gets back into his usual spot of fourth.
Bottas, who hadn't yet done a time, bolts on the softs and powers to fourth on the timing board. It's a 1m22.993s to get ahead of Perez in the times.
Perez improves his time to a 1m23.137s, but that's still about 0.8s away from Red Bull team-mate Verstappen. Russell has taken sixth back from Alonso.
There's Olivier Giroud in the Alpine box, no doubt one of the team's 2023 driver options as it still considers next year.
And there's a 1m22.303s for Verstappen, shading Leclerc by 0.004s to get to the top.
Alonso splits the two Mercedes cars on the timing board, going 0.04s quicker than Russell's time.
It's a 1m22.307s, 0.1s faster than his headline time from FP1. Leclerc looking very settled already this weekend.
After the initial flurry of runs in the first five minutes, Verstappen, Sainz and Perez occupy the top three, followed by Hamilton, Russell and Alonso. Leclerc now starts his first quick lap on the mediums.
Verstappen then turns in a 1m23.021s, also on the mediums, to go top.
It's a 1m23.156s, about 0.7s away from Leclerc's earlier benchmark in FP1.
Sainz is going to kick us off with our first benchmark lap. He's on the medium tyres, picking the yellow-walled compound to match the Ferrari special livery.
Sainz, Alonso, Schumacher and Vettel hit the road first to kick off this hour's sesh at Monza.
And that's the green light - FP2 hath begunneth.
Just five minutes until the pitlane opens now, and we should get more of an idea of how the cars stack up in this session - both in qualifying and race runs.
It was a Ferrari 1-2 in the opening session, Leclerc from Sainz, to delight the home crowd. But Red Bull looks like it's going to be quick - so will it be short-lived?

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