Free Practice at Monza: Mercedes Bounces Back, but Charles Leclerc Keeps Smiling

Friday’s second free practice session at Monza took a different turn from FP1, where Ferrari had surprised everyone with a Leclerc–Hamilton one-two. In the afternoon, however, it was Mercedes that stole the show: George Russell set the fastest time of the session, putting the German team back in the lead during the final hour of track time for the Formula 1 cars that day.

Russell clocked his fastest lap at 1:22.559, a time that made Mercedes’ intentions for the weekend clear. The Briton, who needs a strong result at Monza to stay in the title fight, finished 120 thousandths of a second ahead of Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari, confirming the sense of a direct battle between the two teams that had already emerged in FP1.

Despite finishing second, Leclerc left the paddock feeling positive. The Monegasque driver confirmed the pace he showed in the first free practice session and maintained a positive attitude, aware that Ferrari still has room to improve ahead of Saturday’s qualifying. In short, there was no shortage of smiles: the SF‑26 has proven effective so far, and the Monza crowd appreciated the performance of driver number 16.

Behind the two of them, Kimi Antonelli set the third-fastest time, focusing almost exclusively on race pace ahead of Sunday, when he’ll start from the back of the grid due to a penalty imposed for replacing his power unit. The young driver from Bologna, however, showed consistency and reliability, proving that he isn’t letting events affect him too much—at least for now.

Lando Norris, coming off two consecutive victories, finished fourth, while Lewis Hamilton couldn’t do better than fifth, nearly half a second behind his Ferrari teammate. Oscar Piastri finished sixth, rounding out the top three teams in the leading positions. The negative surprise of Friday was once again Red Bull: Max Verstappen could only manage the ninth-fastest time, while Liam Lawson finished twelfth.