2024 F1 Round 16 Italian GP FP2: Hamilton edges Norris by 0.003s as Red Bull finish 14th and 15th

The second practice session for the 2024 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix took place on Friday evening, 30 August, Beijing time. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets with a 1m20.738s lap, beating McLaren’s Lando Norris by just 0.003s. Ferrari, arriving with a major upgrade, placed Carlos Sainz third, with Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc fourth and fifth; the top five were covered by only 0.154s. RB’s Yuki Tsunoda had his running disrupted by the red flag and ended the session 16th. Hamilton also complained over the radio that his seat was “very hot”.

During FP2, air temperatures ranged from 33.6°C to 34.8°C, while the track temperature ranged from 41.6°C to 48°C. After Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s crash in the morning, the Mercedes mechanics worked flat out on repairs but could not finish before the session began, leaving George Russell stuck in the garage for the first 25 minutes. He had been on track for only five minutes when Haas driver Kevin Magnussen lost control at the second Lesmo and hit the barriers. The red flags were out once more, stopping the session for 12 minutes; only 18 minutes remained when running resumed.

The accident changed the course of the second half of the session. Tsunoda had switched to soft tyres and started a flying lap, setting a personal best of 26.506s in the first sector, only for the red flag to render the effort worthless. After the restart, he had to try again on used softs, but the rush to recover lost track time left the circuit congested. He finished the day 16th, 0.435s behind team mate Daniel Ricciardo.

It was a particularly difficult Friday for Red Bull. Max Verstappen ran wide at Parabolica and abandoned his first flying lap on softs during his qualifying simulation; before he could begin a second attempt, the red flag intervened. He had to settle for 14th with a time set on medium tyres. Problems with Sergio Perez’s car kept him in the garage for much of the session, with suggestions that the team had changed his gearbox as a precaution. He completed only 14 laps, nearly half the 27 recorded by Sainz, Lance Stroll and Zhou Guanyu, who shared the highest total, and finished 15th.

Russell took sixth, while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Stroll also made the top ten. Valtteri Bottas continued his impressive FP1 form in 11th, followed by Magnussen, who had crashed, and Alex Albon. Debutant Franco Colapinto continued to make steady progress, finishing 17th, just 0.192s behind team mate Albon. Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon and Zhou occupied the final three positions.

Third practice was scheduled for the early evening of 31 August, Beijing time, with qualifying later that evening.