FRIDAY PRACTICE INTELLIGENCE
Mercedes and Ferrari Lead as McLaren Searches for Pace
George Russell ended Friday fastest at Monza, Charles Leclerc kept Ferrari firmly in the fight and Kimi Antonelli showed strong underlying Mercedes pace while preparing for a recovery race from the back.
Published Sep 4, 2026 · Friday practice completeFriday at Monza ended with a much clearer picture than it began.
Ferrari opened the Italian Grand Prix weekend with a one-two in FP1, but by the end of FP2 Mercedes had moved to the top. George Russell produced the fastest lap of the day with a 1:22.559, edging Charles Leclerc by 0.120 seconds while Kimi Antonelli completed the leading trio just 0.141 seconds off his team-mate.
The margins matter more than the order. Mercedes and Ferrari emerged from Friday separated by almost nothing, while McLaren — winner of the previous two Grands Prix with Lando Norris — ended the day with more work to do than expected.
Mercedes leaves Friday with the strongest headline
Russell’s FP2 benchmark came during the qualifying simulations on the soft tyre and survived the remainder of the session as teams switched toward longer runs.
Antonelli was similarly competitive. The championship leader briefly headed the session before Russell and Leclerc improved, eventually finishing third.
That performance does not alter Antonelli’s race-start problem. His planned engine change means he is still preparing to begin Sunday from the back of the grid. What Friday does establish is that Mercedes appears to have genuine Monza speed.
For Russell, that makes Saturday increasingly important. A strong qualifying position could give Mercedes its best route to exploiting Antonelli’s enforced recovery race while also applying pressure to Ferrari at its home Grand Prix.
Ferrari’s upgrade remains in the fight
Leclerc followed his FP1-leading performance with second place in FP2, keeping Ferrari at the center of the competitive picture.
The SF-26 did not simply produce an eye-catching opening session; it remained competitive once the field moved onto more representative soft-tyre qualifying runs. Lewis Hamilton finished fifth, 0.457 seconds behind Russell, leaving Ferrari with both cars inside the top five.
The remaining question is whether Ferrari can convert its improved power-unit package and Monza-specific set-up into enough straight-line performance to challenge Mercedes through qualifying. The evidence so far says the opportunity is real.
Race pace leaves Mercedes and Ferrari almost inseparable
Friday’s long runs make the qualifying battle even harder to separate.
Once stint length and tyre choice are accounted for, Mercedes and Ferrari appear virtually level on race pace. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton produced effectively identical adjusted pace, with George Russell only around two hundredths of a second per lap behind.
That strengthens the case that Ferrari’s Friday performance is more than a low-fuel headline. But the remaining weakness is significant: straight-line speed.
Hamilton said Mercedes appears to hold an advantage at the end of Monza’s long straights, an area that could become decisive in qualifying and especially in race traffic. His own FP2 deficit was partly affected by running without a tow, but Ferrari still has overnight work to do to reduce the speed difference.
The result is a finely balanced trade-off. Ferrari appears capable of matching Mercedes over a stint, while Mercedes currently holds the stronger straight-line profile.
McLaren has an overnight problem to solve
McLaren’s Friday was less convincing. Norris finished fourth, 0.384 seconds off Russell, with Oscar Piastri sixth. Those positions are hardly disastrous, but Norris’s assessment after the session was more concerning than the raw classification.
Norris said McLaren was struggling for pace in corners where the team expected the car to be strong and said he did not currently view the MCL40 as a genuine pole-position contender.
McLaren reported that its new H-Wing behaved as intended. The remaining work centers on harvesting, deployment and extracting more performance from the package overnight.
FP3 will show whether Friday exposed a fundamental Monza weakness or a configuration problem that can be reduced before qualifying.
Antonelli’s pace changes the recovery calculation
Antonelli’s weekend remains unlike anyone else’s at the front. Qualifying position itself carries limited value because his engine penalty sends him to the rear of the grid regardless, but his FP2 pace still matters.
Running just 0.141 seconds behind Russell suggests Mercedes has given the championship leader a car capable of making progress on Sunday. Mercedes also said Antonelli focused more heavily on long-run work Friday, making that underlying pace especially relevant to his recovery objective.
Traffic, DRS trains and tyre behavior can all complicate progress through the field, but Mercedes' Friday performance gives Antonelli a credible platform.
Red Bull remains difficult to read
Max Verstappen returned to the RB22 for FP2 after Ayumu Iwasa handled his car in opening practice. Verstappen finished ninth and reported insufficient downforce early in the session, leading Red Bull to change the front wing.
Liam Lawson, continuing in the other Red Bull while Isack Hadjar remains unavailable, finished 12th. That leaves Red Bull behind Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren in the Friday classification and with set-up work ahead.
Red Bull expects more from race pace than qualifying pace
Red Bull’s own Friday assessment supports the idea that the RB22 may be stronger over longer runs than on a single lap.
Liam Lawson spent much of FP2 concentrating on race simulations, while the team acknowledged that one-lap performance remains an area it needs to improve before qualifying.
That makes Red Bull a potential Sunday threat even if Verstappen and Lawson do not qualify alongside the leading Mercedes and Ferrari cars.
Friday verdict: Mercedes and Ferrari are effectively deadlocked
Mercedes still owns the fastest individual lap, but the longer-run evidence makes the weekend considerably tighter than the FP2 classification alone suggests.
Ferrari appears capable of matching Mercedes over a race stint. Mercedes appears to retain the stronger top-speed profile. McLaren remains dissatisfied with its one-lap performance, while Red Bull believes its relative strength may emerge more clearly over longer runs.
Ferrari needs more straight-line efficiency. McLaren needs to unlock qualifying pace and improve energy deployment. Red Bull needs to turn its race-run strength into a more competitive single lap.
Russell and Leclerc remain the clearest immediate pole contenders, but Friday has not produced a decisive favorite.
FP3 now becomes less about identifying who is fast and more about seeing which team solves its remaining weakness first.
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