Max ends Friday at Monza in fifth: 'Not a great day'

Published on 04 September 2020 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen replicated his fifth position in the first practice session in FP2 of the Italian Grand Prix. Mercedes was quickest at Monza with Lewis Hamilton leading Valtteri Bottas. Lando Norris completed the top three in is McLaren.

“It wasn’t a great day. We’re struggling with the balance and grip of the car, so we have our work cut out for us”, said Max, who also referred to going wide at the Parabolica: “You try to find the limit so sometimes you choose to go wide. That’s not a problem in practice.”

Looking ahead to Saturday, Max concluded: “We have to find more grip and if we find the right balance, tyre degradation will be fine. That’s what we’ll work on.”

Like FP1, Kimi Raikkonen (Alfra Romeo) is the first driver out on track in the afternoon. The top three drivers in the championship, both Mercs and Max, take it easy and do not head out until twenty minutes into the session.

When the front runners do take to the circuit, Mercedes immediately assert their dominance with both Hamilton and Bottas topping the leaderboards with an eight tenths advantage over third-placed Max.

At the halfway mark, all drivers are out on track and all are attempting to improve their lap times by switching to the soft Pirellis. Despite the times tumbling, not all laps are registered; several drivers exceed track limits resulting in their clocked time being deleted.

The drivers continue to search for the limit, with some stepping over it; Sebastian Vettel spins on the exit of the second Lesmo and Max goes wide on the exit of Parabolica.

With ten minutes to go, Max switches compounds to work on his RB16’s race set-up. As he now uses the hard Pirellis, he does not better his lap time in the remainder of the session.

Meanwhile, Lando Norris has put his McLaren in third, meaning Max ends FP2 in fifth, whilst the Mercedes appear to have a comfortable gap at the front.

Italian GP contest: win the grey Max Verstappen cap!

Results second free practice Italy: