Free Practice 2 at Monza delivered everything you’d expect from the Temple of Speed: gravel clouds, big saves, and a rookie under intense scrutiny.
Kimi Antonelli’s session ended when he lost the rear through the Lesmos and beached his car, cutting short what had been a promising purple first sector for Alexander Albon. It’s become a familiar pattern, mistakes at key moments adding to an already brutal European leg. Laying it out race by race makes for grim reading: Imola brought a P13 in qualifying and an engine DNF in the race, Monaco ended with a crash and a P18 finish after clattering Bortoleto, Spain saw him qualify P6 before another engine failure, Austria ended in disaster when he collided with Verstappen on Lap 1, Silverstone was over after contact from Isack Hadjar, Belgium produced nothing better than P16, Hungary offered a single point in P10, and Zandvoort saw him take out Charles Leclerc and pick up a pit-lane speeding penalty that dropped him to P16.
That’s one point in seven races, 19th of 20 in the standings, and a series of confidence-shaking errors. The comparison to George Russell is relentless: Antonelli trails by an average of four to six tenths in competitive sessions, has been knocked out earlier in three straight qualifying sessions, and sits 35-2 down in head-to-heads. It’s the kind of form that evokes memories of Perez at his worst, Gasly and Albon during their Red Bull spirals, or even a rookie Vandoorneing by his teammate. Some argue that in a Racing Bulls or Sauber seat, he’d be seen as a normal rookie; instead, at Mercedes, every mistake is magnified.
The irony is that Antonelli was on sprint pole just before the European leg began, and his best results this year have come outside Europe. It’s almost become a running joke to call it a “European debuff,” with some suggesting he won’t recover until Singapore. His pace relative to Russell is not catastrophic, often within two to four tenths, but the mistakes mount as he pushes harder to close the gap. The more he digs for pace, the more he oversteps, and it’s leaving his confidence frayed. Toto Wolff has been patient, but there’s a limit; Mercedes hasn’t blooded a rookie in this way before, and Antonelli is finding out why.
Elsewhere, FP2 was defined by the gravel. Lando Norris almost lost the car at the Della Roggia chicane, a moment that summed up the session: everyone sliding, gravel spraying onto the racing line, and cars skating across corner exits. It became a theme in itself, “Plan G for Gravel,” with chants of “Gravel! Gravel! Gravel!” echoing around Monza. The running joke even took on a meta twist, merging into the F1 movie’s APX GP meme culture, proof of how quickly on-track quirks become part of the entertainment fabric.
The timesheets ended with Norris quickest on a 1:19.878, followed by Leclerc, Sainz, Piastri, Hamilton, Verstappen, Albon, Hülkenberg, Tsunoda, and Russell. The consistency stood out: Sainz was third in both FP1 and FP2, Albon seventh in both. Ferrari’s form across both sessions has the tifosi inhaling hopium, but conditioned by years of heartbreak. Leclerc pole and a fifth-place finish feels inevitable, Sainz getting torpedoed into Turn 1 seems almost scripted, and strategy or reliability mishaps lurk around every corner. Fans even sketched out entire race scenarios, complete with Lawson collisions and ten-second penalties in Baku. Ferrari may be on it, but everyone knows what usually comes next.
Williams’ practice strength also carried over from FP1, where Albon impressed with P7, and again in FP2 with the same position. Earlier in the year that might have looked like “glory running,” but with reliability now sorted, there’s reason to believe the pace is genuine.
At the other end of the grid, Alpine’s misery is all but cemented. FP1 already showed them welded to the back with their engine deficit, sparking gallows humor about them skipping FP2 for a dinner in Milan instead. FP2 simply confirmed it, with a “back row lockout” looking inevitable for the weekend. No amount of Flavio Briatore strategy trickery could disguise it here.
Around it all, the usual sideshows played out. Sky’s commentary leaned too heavily on practice times, Sauber’s likable project under Jonathan Wheatley kept fans rooting for their success, and Crofty’s self-dialogue in the cool-down room begged to be gif’d.
Two sessions in, the storylines are clear: Ferrari look sharp but doomed to repeat their own history, Williams have real pace, Alpine are marooned, and Antonelli is living through the hardest lessons of a rookie campaign in the harshest possible spotlight. Monza FP2 wasn’t just practice, it was theater.