Red Bull woes continue in FP2 as Ferrari and McLaren sense success in Imola

Verstappen left fuming

Max Verstappen had a messy FP1 session, so more focus and attention was laid on him than usual. Evidence from the Red Bull garage prior to the session suggested a major set-up change for Verstappen in the time between FP1 and FP2. The Dutchman went straight to the top of the timesheets on the medium tyres. The Ferrari drivers pipped him in the opening 15 minutes, and that's about as good as it got for Verstappen. 

He seemed well off the pace during FP2, parked firmly behind Ferrari, Oscar Piastri and even Mercedes. Verstappen vented his frustration over the team radio several times during the session. He then got into an altercation with Lewis Hamilton, who got in his way during a flying lap. The Brit apologised, but it didn't stop Verstappen from pushing him as wide as possible. Verstappen finished the session with a trip across the gravel trap.

Williams also had an issue in FP1 with Alex Albon, which seemingly continued through to FP2. In fact, both Albon and Logan Sargeant were late out of the garage. However, Williams told GPblog that no issues had occurred and they were running through their programme. They both made it out with just over 30 minutes remaining in the session. 

Around the halfway point, drivers and teams opted to put on the soft tyres. Mercedes went first and jumped up the leaderboard. Leclerc then upped the pace on the soft tyres. The man from Monaco found a seven-tenth gain compared to the medium tyres and stayed at the top. His teammate was around half a second slower. 

Verstappen then went purple in sector one but again struggled in sector two. He lost around three-tenths to Leclerc in the middle of the lap. He sat sixth on the timesheet, behind Ferrari, Mercedes and Piastri after that set of laps. Yuki Tsunoda then made a major jump to P3 to push Verstappen down to P7. The long runs then became the focus for the rest of the session.