For a few hours Friday, everything at Monza looked exactly the way the tifosi wanted it to. Red cars first and second.
Charles Leclerc on top. Lewis Hamilton right behind him.
Then Mercedes showed up.
George Russell ended Friday as the fastest Formula 1 driver at the Italian Grand Prix, setting a 1:22.559 in Free Practice 2 to beat Leclerc by just 0.120 seconds and turn what began as a Ferrari celebration into something considerably more interesting heading toward qualifying. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli completed the top three for Mercedes, only 0.141 seconds behind Russell, while Lando Norris finished fourth for McLaren and Hamilton dropped to fifth.
Two practice sessions don't decide a Grand Prix. But after Friday at Monza, they did establish something worth paying attention to.
Ferrari looks quick at home. Mercedes does too. And there isn't much separating them.
Ferrari Gives Monza the Start It Wanted
If Ferrari could have scripted FP1, it probably wouldn't have looked much different.Leclerc set the pace with a 1:23.008, finishing 0.173 seconds ahead of Hamilton to give Ferrari a 1-2 in front of its home crowd. Russell was third, followed by Liam Lawson and Antonelli. There was another encouraging detail for Ferrari. Leclerc's fastest lap came on the medium tire while several rivals were using the softer compound during their qualifying-style runs. That's the kind of Friday detail that gets attention.
It doesn't guarantee Ferrari has suddenly found a qualifying advantage, and practice programs make direct comparisons dangerous, but Leclerc didn't need the softest available tire to put the SF-26 at the top. Hamilton then moved into second late in the session. For Ferrari, which arrives at every Italian Grand Prix carrying expectations considerably heavier than a normal race weekend, it was about as encouraging an opening hour as the team could have requested.
And this isn't a normal Monza weekend for Hamilton, either. The seven-time world champion is tied with Michael Schumacher for the most Italian Grand Prix victories at five and owns a record seven poles at Monza. Ferrari is also running a special Schumacher-inspired livery this weekend, marking 30 years since the German joined the team.
Red car. Monza. Ferrari crowd. The ingredients were there. Then came FP2.
Mercedes Answers
Russell didn't immediately own the second session. Far from it. Antonelli was quick early, Leclerc repeatedly threatened the top and traffic became part of the story as drivers searched for space—and occasionally a tow—around one of Formula 1's fastest circuits. Antonelli became the first driver into the 1:22s with a 1:22.700 before Russell lowered the benchmark to 1:22.686. Then Leclerc went quicker.1:22.679. Seven thousandths between them. Russell's response was decisive: 1:22.559.
Nobody beat it.
Leclerc finished second, Antonelli third and suddenly Friday's picture looked much less Ferrari-dominated than it had a few hours earlier. That's probably the most important takeaway from opening day. Not that Ferrari topped FP1.Not that Mercedes topped FP2. It's that whenever one appeared to move ahead, the other wasn't far away.
Leclerc Was Fast—and Occasionally Over the Limit
Leclerc's Friday wasn't spotless. He locked up at the opening chicane early in FP2 and later spun at the second chicane during the final 10 minutes of the session. The Ferrari escaped without damage and Leclerc rejoined. The mistakes didn't prevent him from finishing second. If anything, that makes Ferrari's underlying pace more intriguing.
Leclerc was only 0.120 seconds from Russell despite the untidy moments, while Hamilton's fifth-place finish put both Ferraris inside the top five. But Friday practice at Monza comes with an enormous warning label. Tow effects can significantly alter lap times. Teams run different fuel loads. Engine modes differ. And one driver finding—or losing—the right piece of track can distort the order quickly. Monza magnifies all of it.
Cars spend roughly 80% of a lap at full throttle, with the circuit's long straights making aerodynamic efficiency and slipstreaming particularly important. So the stopwatch tells us Ferrari and Mercedes are close. It doesn't tell us exactly why yet.
Saturday should.
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Antonelli Is Fast, but Sunday Is Already Complicated
There's another Mercedes story buried inside the top three. Kimi Antonelli is home. He's leading the Formula 1 World Championship. He's quick.
And he'll start Sunday's Grand Prix from the back.
Antonelli enters Monza with 242 points, 59 ahead of Russell and Hamilton, who are tied on 183. But Mercedes has taken an engine change on Antonelli's car that will send the Italian to the rear of the grid regardless of where he qualifies. That changes the purpose of his weekend considerably. Antonelli finished fifth in FP1 and improved to third in FP2, just 0.141 seconds off Russell, despite reporting understeer during the session.
The pace is there. The starting position won't be. That creates a strange home Grand Prix for the championship leader. Saturday qualifying matters for information and confidence, but Antonelli already knows Sunday's race will begin as a recovery drive. At Monza, at least, overtaking isn't impossible. He's probably going to need quite a bit of it.
Don't Read Too Much Into Verstappen Yet
Max Verstappen ended FP2 ninth. Normally, seeing the four-time world champion that far down the order would demand attention. This time, it requires an asterisk. Verstappen didn't participate in FP1.
Red Bull handed his car to Ayumu Iwasa as part of its rookie running program, meaning Verstappen entered FP2 without the opening hour of track time available to most of his rivals. Iwasa finished 17th in the first session. Once Verstappen returned, things weren't immediately comfortable.
He complained about a lack of downforce, prompting Red Bull to change his front wing, and his medium-tire running initially left him eighth before the qualifying simulations began. He eventually finished ninth. That's not an encouraging result. But it's also not enough to declare Red Bull out of contention. Verstappen spent FP2 catching up on work Ferrari, Mercedes and most of the field had already started several hours earlier.
Saturday will give us a much cleaner comparison.
McLaren Is Lurking
McLaren wasn't the headline Friday. That doesn't mean it disappeared. Norris finished sixth in FP1 before improving to fourth in FP2, 0.384 seconds behind Russell. Oscar Piastri was 11th in the opening session and sixth in the second. Norris also had one of Friday's more uncomfortable moments when he encountered Lance Stroll approaching the first chicane. Stroll moved toward the racing line as Norris arrived at speed, forcing the McLaren onto the grass in the braking zone.
Norris' radio assessment was simple: "It's dangerous." No contact followed, but it was another reminder of how quickly Monza traffic becomes complicated.
Everyone wants clean air. Everyone wants a tow. And there are only so many places to find either. Expect qualifying to make that problem considerably worse.