Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz topped the timesheet in the second practice session for the 2022 FIA Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, beating Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen by a little over a tenth of a second as more drivers joined the two fastest men on the list of drives set to incur grid penalties for Sunday’s race.

It had already been confirmed that Verstappen, Sainz and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton would take grid penalties for PU element changes but race officials later revealed that Sergio Pérez in the other Red Bull, Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda will also make component changes and incur penalties.

At the start of the late afternoon session Sainz bolted to the top of the order with a medium-tyre lap of 1:23.156. Verstappen then took over in P1 with a lap of 1:23.021, also on the mediums. Pérez then moved to third place ahead of Hamilton, George Russell and Alpine Fernando Alonso. Charles Leclerc was on track for his first run, however, and he moved to first place with a lap of 1:22.307. 

The Monegasque driver's tenure at the top was brief, however, and Verstappen soon moved ahead again, this time with a lap of 1:22.303, just 0.004s quicker than the Ferrari man. 

With a little over a quarter of an hour on the clock, Valtteri Bottas emerged on soft tyres and the Alfa Romeo driver went fourth with a lap of 1:22.993. moving ahead of Pérez. That sparked the switch to qualifying runs and McLaren’s Lando Norris moved to P3 with a lap of 1:22.338, while Alonso jumped to fourth. Verstappen then improved in first place, lowering the benchmark to 1:21.807. 

Any further improvements were briefly halted, however, as Mick Schumacher’s Haas ground to a halt at the side of the track, with the German driver reporting that it felt as though his “engine had seized”. 

The session resumed with 25 minutes left on the clock and Sainz was soon on track on soft tyres. The Spaniard duly jumped to P1 with a lap of 1:21.664 that put him 0.143s ahead of Verstappen and almost two tenths ahead of Leclerc.

That was the end of the qualifying simulations and the front runners moved to longer runs for the remainder of the session. And with Leclerc third, fourth place went to Norris, with the McLaren driver finishing just under five hundredths of a second ahead of Russell with Pérez in sixth place. Lewis Hamilton was seventh for Mercedes ahead of the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Alonso and Williams’ Alex Albon was tenth. 
 

2022 FIA Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 
1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:21.664 24 255.373
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:21.807 0.143 27 254.926
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:21.857 0.193 23 254.771
4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:22.338 0.674 29 253.282
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:22.386 0.722 24 253.135
6 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1:22.394 0.730 26 253.110
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:22.503 0.839 25 252.776
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:22.728 1.064 29 252.088
9 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1:22.752 1.088 28 252.015
10 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:22.835 1.171 24 251.763
11 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 1:22.911 1.247 26 251.532
12 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:22.938 1.274 30 251.450
13 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:22.993 1.329 26 251.283
14 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Red Bull 1:23.135 1.471 25 250.854
15 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Red Bull 1:23.217 1.553 31 250.607
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:23.557 1.893 25 249.587
17 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:23.731 2.067 26 249.069
18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:23.785 2.121 27 248.908
19 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:23.982 2.318 23 248.324
20 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 1:24.586 2.922 9 246.551