At the Italian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in Free Practice 2. He narrowly defeated Lando Norris, while Max Verstappen trailed behind and still had work to do.
Lewis Hamilton topped the practice timesheets and was looking hot in more ways than one.
Max Verstappen set the fastest time in the day’s first, warmer session, but Hamilton defeated Lando Norris by 0.003 seconds in the more representative hour of running. That was in spite of his constant complaints about being in a “hot seat,” a problem that teammate George Russell in his Mercedes also mentioned.
“That car was ridiculously roasting,” he remarked. “I’m not exactly sure why… It hurt to be so hot—like when you sit in a sauna without wearing shorts.” Still, he was thrilled with how his car felt and that it performed better between the two sessions.
Hamilton went on, “Today has been going well. All in all, it felt pretty good. Although the new Tarmac has presented a new challenge, the car felt excellent right away. During the break, we made some excellent adjustments, and by the second session, the car felt better.”
Russell only completed 19 laps, placing him sixth fastest overall because teenager Andrea Kimi Antonelli had wrecked his car earlier in the day. During his second flying lap in his first F1 practice session, the 18-year-old lost control of the Mercedes and buried it in a tire wall.
“Unfortunately, it ended quite quickly because of the crash—it was quite a big one,” Antonelli remarked. I sincerely apologize to George and the team for forcing them to work afterward. I should have known better, but I pushed a little too hard for the circumstances. Lesson learned for the future.”
Mercedes has already determined that Antonelli will take Hamilton’s place at Ferrari, so the crash won’t stop them. On Saturday, it’s anticipated that Russell’s 2019 partner, the young Italian, will be revealed.
Although the youngster may have been affected by the occasion, boss Toto Wolff expressed his amazement at the speed Antonelli displayed in his brief time on the track. “These moments will occur and will persist in the upcoming year, but there will also be many highlights,” he declared.
“It’s more that we need to slow him down than increase his speed; what we’ve seen in just 1.5 laps is simply incredible. The fact that he is unharmed above all else is significant because the impact was 45 g.
Verstappen was well off the pace in FP2, finishing in 14th place, after performing well earlier in the day. “We just need to tidy it up a bit,” he said, not panicking. Hopefully, we will be among the handful of cars that I believe will be in a close race. To be truly competitive, some work still needs to be done.”
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