Hamilton leads Mercedes one-two after Sainz crashes heavily at Monza

Mercedes underlined their pace advantage at Monza as Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas led the final practice session before this afternoon’s sprint qualifying race.

The hour-long session was interrupted halfway though when Carlos Sainz Jnr crashed heavily at Ascari. The Ferrari driver climbed from the car unaided and was cleared following preliminary checks, but will undergo a further inspection ahead of sprint qualifying.

It continued a difficult weekend for Ferrari, who had to change the power unit on Charles Leclerc’s car after his problems on Friday. He switched back to his well-used original unit from the start of the season, putting him at a disadvantage at the most demanding track on the calendar for engines.

As second and final practice is held after qualifying under parc fermé conditions during a sprint qualifying weekend, team’s focused on relatively long runs, on high fuel, to gather data ahead of the two remaining, racing sessions. Most cars took their time to emerge from the garages, Nikita Mazepin the first driver on track.

Red Bull kept their drivers abreast of the times set by the Mercedes drivers and Lando Norris who will start closest to them on the grid for this afternoon’s sprint qualifying race. Max Verstappen led the times at the session’s quarter and half way points, with Sergio Perez just behind him, Red Bull seemingly at less of a disadvantage relative to Mercedes on race pace than they had during qualifying.

The session was relatively quiet as drivers got on with their programmes, until the halfway point when Sainz’s crash caused a 10-minute interruption. The Ferrari driver lost the back end of his car heading into Ascari and went nose-first into the barrier. “I had a massive crash,” he said on the radio. “That hurt a bit. But I’m okay.”

Practice resumed with 22 minutes remaining and drivers were quick to get back out on track. A few drivers reported being held up by traffic, though none as seriously as yesterday. Sebastian Vettel described the situation to his engineer as “messy” as he was unable to put clear laps together.

Both Alfa Romeo cars made the top 10, beating one Alpine, both AlphaTauri drivers and one McLaren. Ferrari ended the session in the bottom half of the times. Their running came to an early end after an unexplained radio message from Leclerc who pitted shortly before the end of the session. “Guys, I need to stop,” he said as he accelerated away from the Rettiflio. “I cannot explain here.”

During the final 10 minutes of the session Mercedes showed their speed around Monza, comfortably stripping Red Bull of the first and second fastest times, while both their drivers avoided using the medium compound tyres.

Mazepin was caught speeding by 6.8kph in the pit lane during the session, prompting a €700 fine for his Haas team.

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2021 Italian Grand Prix second practice result

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’23.246		25
2	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1’23.468	0.222	24
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda	1’23.662	0.416	23
4	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda	1’23.917	0.671	29
5	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1’24.263	1.017	20
6	88	Robert Kubica	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’24.280	1.034	28
7	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’24.502	1.256	26
8	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	1’24.539	1.293	16
9	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	1’24.654	1.408	24
10	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1’24.665	1.419	27
11	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’24.770	1.524	21
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	1’24.774	1.528	24
13	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	1’24.805	1.559	23
14	63	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	1’25.083	1.837	22
15	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda	1’25.422	2.176	32
16	9	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari	1’25.729	2.483	23
17	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’25.763	2.517	28
18	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’25.935	2.689	28
19	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	1’26.012	2.766	25
20	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	1’26.124	2.878	14

Second practice visual gaps

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

Pos	Driver	Car	FP1	FP2	Total laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’20.926	1’23.246	53
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda	1’21.378	1’23.662	45
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1’21.451	1’23.468	53
4	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’21.676	1’25.763	51
5	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-Honda	1’21.719	1’24.654	52
6	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’21.824	1’25.935	54
7	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	1’21.914	1’26.124	40
8	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	1’21.926	1’24.539	40
9	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	1’22.003	1’24.774	51
10	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda	1’22.039	1’23.917	52
11	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’22.102	1’24.770	46
12	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1’22.103	1’24.665	54
13	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’22.270	1’24.502	52
14	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda	1’22.530	1’25.422	63
15	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1’22.534	1’24.263	47
16	Robert Kubica	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1’23.009	1’24.280	56
17	George Russell	Williams-Mercedes	1’23.092	1’25.083	53
18	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	1’23.442	1’24.805	53
19	Nikita Mazepin	Haas-Ferrari	1’23.445	1’25.729	46
20	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	1’23.551	1’26.012	48

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2021 Italian Grand Prix

• Who was to blame for Hamilton and Verstappen’s collision at Monza?
• Friday qualifying needs earlier start after “nearly dark” Monza session – Ricciardo
• Drivers suggest sprint qualifying format changes after processional second race
• Sainz pleased for McLaren despite “worst possible” result for Ferrari
• Red Bull were advised Perez should let Leclerc past – Masi

Browse all 2021 Italian Grand Prix articles