In free practice on the Brianza circuit the Englishman preceded the Ferrari driver and the world championship leader who will start from the tenth row to serve the penalty
Ferrari has every intention of making the thousands of fans who will storm the Monza racetrack this weekend happy. In the Italian temple of motor racing, the Rossa immediately demonstrated in free practice that it was competitive thanks to the new upgraded engine. Charles Leclerc got the second half behind George Russell and in front of Kimi Antonelli. A Ferrari between two Mercedes while in fifth place is the Mc Laren of world champion Lando Norris and then the other Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton.
Kimi with race pace
For Kimi Antonelli these two days of testing before the grand prix will be anomalous. The Italian driver, current leader of the drivers’ world championship, will not be chasing pole position but he will work on the race pace as he did yesterday, lapping sixteen times on the Brianza circuit and with excellent results. It would make no sense to chase a useless pole position given that he will still be forced to start from twentieth position due to the penalty he has to serve. Better to prepare the race based on the many overtaking he will be forced to make to move up from the last row. Kimi is highly motivated and aware that he is driving a single-seater that can overtake several opponents in just a few laps due to the characteristics of the Monza circuit which allows for many overtaking.
The Ferraris are doing well
Second place today takes some pressure off Charles Leclerc and Ferrari but the men from Maranello are above all interested in tomorrow’s pole position and Sunday’s race. The Red car has shown that it is in step with Mercedes both in qualifying and in race pace, the engine upgrade presented in Monza has already had its effects, but now comes the decisive moment with official qualifying and the race. Ferrari has the chance to catch up on Antonelli given the penalty that will force Kimi to start from the last row, but Russell’s best time makes it clear that it won’t be easy to win the challenge with the silver arrows.
