ercedes’ Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of the second practice session for Sunday’s 2024 FIA Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, pipping McLaren’s Lando Norris by just 0.003s at the end of a session that was halted midway through when Kevin Magnussen crashed his Haas.

In the first third of the session, run on Medium tyres, it was Norris who set the pace early on with a lap of 1:21.605 that put him 0.036s ahead of Hamilton. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz then demoted both with a lap of  1m21.264, before his own P1 time was eclipsed by team-mate Charles Leclerc who posted a time of 1m21.119 to take top spot.

Drivers then began to make the move to Soft tyres and qualifying simulations. The McLaren pair were the first to make the switch and they quickly jumped to the top of the timesheet, with Oscar Piastri initially taking top spot ahead of Norris thanks to a time of 1:20.858. However, Norris was then edged ahead by 0.007s before stretching further ahead with a time of 1m20.791. Hamilton was able to find just enough pace to beat the Dutch Grand Prix and his 1:20.738s handed him P1 by 0.003s.

While the McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes drivers were able to fully exploit their qualifying runs, Red Bull’s drivers couldn’t dent the top positions. Verstappen’s first effort on Soft tyres had to be abandoned when he suffered a moment of oversteer in the Parabolica. The Dutchman, quickest in the opening session, backed out of his run and prepped for a second attempt. But before he could do that Magnussen crashed.

The Haas driver lost the rear of his car in the second Lesmo and he spun off backwards into the gravel trap before going nose-first into the barriers. The red flags came out and the session was halted for 12 minutes while the Dane’s car was recovered. 

When the session resumed the bulk of the field headed out for race simulations on harder compounds. Sergio Pérez, who had sat out the early part of the session as his team worked on his car, was giving the opportunity to put in a late Soft tyre run but the Mexican driver couldn’t extract the pace required to vault into the top positions and he ended the session in P14 behind Verstappen’s best effort on Mediums.

Another driver who missed a chunk of the session was George Russell. The Mercedes driver was absent for the first 25 minutes of the session as his team repaired his car following Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s FP1 crash.

Russell also put in a late run on Softs and with Hamilton and Norris being followed by Sainz, Piastri and Leclerc, Russell made his way to P6 at the flag, ahead of Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg, RB’s Daniel Ricciardo and the Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. 

2024 FIA Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:20.738 24 258.302
2 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:20.741 0.003 23 258.292
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:20.841 0.103 27 257.973
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:20.858 0.120 24 257.918
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:20.892 0.154 26 257.810
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:21.086 0.348 20 257.193
7 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 1:21.140 0.402 25 257.022
8 Daniel Ricciardo RB/Honda RBPT 1:21.300 0.562 23 256.516
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:21.316 0.578 24 256.466
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:21.363 0.625 27 256.317
11 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 1:21.461 0.723 25 256.009
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:21.499 0.761 11 255.890
13 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:21.592 0.854 25 255.598
14 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:21.610 0.872 24 255.542
15 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:21.678 0.940 14 255.329
16 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 1:21.735 0.997 20 255.151
17 Franco Colapinto Williams/Mercedes 1:21.784 1.046 20 254.998
18 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:21.819 1.081 23 254.889
19 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:21.867 1.129 22 254.740
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 1:22.223 1.485 27 253.637