MONZA, Italy — Carlos Sainz preserved his lead by the skin of his teeth during Friday’s free for the Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
Sainz kept his Ferrari ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen — last week’s winner and current point leader — who turned the second best lap.
Verstappen’s quickest lap was .143 seconds slower than Sainz’s 1:21.664 leading lap time, but the Red Bull driver was still happy with the progress he had made, considering his fifth-place effort during the opening practice.
“We’ve been trying a few different things from FP1 to FP2. Some things worked and some didn’t,” Verstappen admitted. “The Ferraris look good, I’m not worried about them, but we still have a few things to finalize.”
To put him somewhat at ease, the Ferrari driver that Verstappen’s fighting for the title finished behind him in practice.
However, even while lurking in third, Charles Leclerc was only five-tenths off the pace.
“We know that this track should be particularly suited to Max’s [Verstappen] and Sergio’s [Perez] car. Having said that, we’ve often seen surprises at Monza, so we’re not ruling out getting the best possible result,” Leclerc said, opting to remain optimistic about the situation.
Verstappen’s teammate, Perez finished the day in sixth, behind McLaren’s Lando Norris in fourth and Mercedes’ George Russell in fifth.
There will be several grid penalties at play during Sunday’s race due to engine adjustments, most notably Verstappen, Perez, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.
Verstappen is facing a five-place grid drop, while the remaining drivers will start from the back of the field.