It was a Ferrari 1-2 in the second practice session of 2018 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel led teammate Kimi Raikkonen at Monza.
The FP2 session did not start on the best note after a huge crash for Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson after the Swede’s car flipped over multiple times at Variante as he lost his rear with the DRS open.
Ericsson was unscathed as he returned to the motorhome after a brief visit to the medical center with the session red-flagged to clear the debris. Sauber had to check the DRS for Charles Leclerc as well which did create issues in closing.
Eventually, the team could fix the DRS helping Leclerc to complete some dry running. At the front though, Vettel set the pace with a 1m21.105s. The German had a moment in the session when he lost the rear while entering Parabolica.
Fortunately, Vettel managed to drive out of the gravel into the the pits for the team to fix the rear wing. It was a good session for Ferrari with Raikkonen (1m21.375s) in second ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (1m21.392s) and Valtteri Bottas (1m21.803s).
The British driver ran over the kerbs using every bit to go faster while the Finn survived few off moments. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen (1m22.154s) and Daniel Ricciardo (1m22.296s) were next up from the two Racing Point Force India drivers.
The team ended up as the best of the rest with Esteban Ocon (1m22.930s) leading teammate Sergio Perez (1m22.942s) as Leclerc (1m22.965s) improved to ninth in a late quick lap with Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m23.063s) in the Top 10.
The Haas cars were a touch out of place with Romain Grosjean (1m23.077s) in 11th and Kevin Magnussen (1m23.233s) 13th sandwiching Renault’s Carlos Sainz (1m23.193s) with Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly (1m23.402s) in 14th.
It was an improved run from the two Williams drivers as Sergey Sirotkin (1m23.514s) ended up 15th and Lance Stroll (1m23.566s) 17th with Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley (1m23.531s) in between.
The dismal run from McLaren continued with Fernando Alonso (1m23.741s) in 18th and Stoffel Vandoorne (1m24.084s) 19th and last with Ericsson not setting a lap time.