Formula 1

Italian GP Saturday practice: All you need to know

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
3 min read

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Lewis Hamilton maintained Mercedes’ stranglehold on the Italian Grand Prix weekend by topping Saturday practice while Carlos Sainz suffered his third shunt in four race weekends.


Key moments:

> Sainz crash causes red flag

> Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2

> Verstappen and Perez 3-4 for Red Bull

> Kubica P6 for Alfa


FP2 marked the final time the F1 teams are on track this weekend prior to the sprint race later on Saturday afternoon.

Following his crash in Hungarian GP qualifying and in FP3 at Zandvoort, Sainz suffered another incident in Saturday practice as he lost control of his car through the Ascari chicane.

Sainz smashed up the front end of his Ferrari and told his team “that hurt a bit but I’m OK” on the radio, as the red flag was swiftly deployed.

Ferrari has three hours to get Sainz’s car ready in time for the sprint race this afternoon, which he should start from seventh ahead of his team-mate Charles Leclerc.

When the session resumed, seven-time F1 champion Hamilton set the fastest time on a 1m23.246s on the soft tyres, 0.222s quicker than his Mercedes team-mate and sprint race pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas.

Championship leader Max Verstappen was third-quickest – the same position that he’ll start the sprint race from – but over half a second slower than his F1 title rival Hamilton albeit on the slower medium tyres, with Sergio Perez just under two tenths back from Verstappen on the softs.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was fifth fastest ahead of the Alfa Romeo duo, led by Robert Kubica in his second weekend standing in for Kimi Raikkonen following the 2007 world champion’s positive COVID test at Zandvoort.

Ocon’s team-mate Fernando Alonso was eighth ahead of 2020 Italian GP winner Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Lando Norris, who will line up in fourth place for the sprint race.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had to pit late on in the session for the team to fix an unspecified issue. He ended up 11th-fastest ahead of the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo.

Practice 2 Results

Pos Name Car Best Time Gap Leader
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m23.246s
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m23.468s +0.222s
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 1m23.662s +0.416s
4 Sergio Pérez Red Bull-Honda 1m23.917s +0.671s
5 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault 1m24.263s +1.017s
6 Robert Kubica Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1m24.28s +1.034s
7 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1m24.502s +1.256s
8 Fernando Alonso Alpine-Renault 1m24.539s +1.293s
9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri-Honda 1m24.654s +1.408s
10 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.665s +1.419s
11 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1m24.77s +1.524s
12 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.774s +1.528s
13 Nicholas Latifi Williams-Mercedes 1m24.805s +1.559s
14 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 1m25.083s +1.837s
15 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Honda 1m25.422s +2.176s
16 Nikita Mazepin Haas-Ferrari 1m25.729s +2.483s
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 1m25.763s +2.517s
18 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin-Mercedes 1m25.935s +2.689s
19 Mick Schumacher Haas-Ferrari 1m26.012s +2.766s
20 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1m26.124s +2.878s
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