Charles clinched the top position in the second practice as well, adding to his earlier fastest lap from the initial session. The Ferrari driver edged ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by a narrow margin of nearly two tenths, while championship frontrunner Max Verstappen grappled with the Red Bull RB20’s balance issues, landing him in seventh place.
Verstappen, after encountering challenges in the first session including two off-track incidents, showed signs of recovery early in FP2 by setting a pace-setting time of 1:16.930. This initially positioned him ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and the Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
Leclerc soon ascended to the top with a 1:16.677 lap on Medium tires. The switch to C5 Soft compound tires for qualifying simulations marked a shift in strategy for the drivers. Amidst this, Mercedes’ George Russell delivered a 1:16.820 lap on the red-banded Pirelli tires, positioning him fourth and 0.143s behind Leclerc’s medium tire effort, though Leclerc soon expanded his lead with a blistering 1:15.969 on Softs.
Midway through the session, Piastri nestled between the Ferraris, trailing Leclerc by just 0.129s. Verstappen, meanwhile, lagged in fourth, a substantial half-second behind before Russell’s improvement to 1:16.311 moved him to third.
Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull made a significant leap to third with only 27 minutes remaining, just three-tenths behind Leclerc. Leclerc responded by tightening his hold on P1 with a lap of 1:15.906s, and Lewis Hamilton advanced to fourth for Mercedes.
Verstappen continued to face difficulties, voicing his frustrations over the radio about the unpredictability of the car’s handling. His struggles were highlighted by his best lap of 1:16.447, securing him only the seventh position, a mere tenth ahead of teammate Sergio Pérez. His challenging day concluded with a loss of control between the Rivazza corners, forcing him through the run-off area.
At the session’s conclusion, Leclerc maintained his dominance with a time 0.192s faster than Piastri, followed by Tsunoda, Hamilton, Russell, and Sainz. Verstappen and Pérez claimed the seventh and eighth spots, while Nico Hülkenberg of Haas and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso completed the top ten.
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