EL2: Ericsson damaged, Vettel in the lead despite an exit

The thrill of the spectators stationed at the Monza circuit (Italy) jumped from the first minutes of the second free practice session on Friday. So at the start of his first timed lap, Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) started in an impressive series of rolls during the first braking.

The Swede lost control of his machine due to a stubborn DRS; it refused to close when the pilot applied the brakes. Somewhat stunned, Marcus Ericsson fortunately emerged from the wreckage under his own power before being taken to the medical center for a routine check-up.

Returning to his stand, the Sauber driver was able to watch the end of the session and in particular a relative return to normal. On a now dry track, the hierarchy has become normal, with the leading teams at the front and the outsiders in the middle of the table.

Magic of Formula 1, the color code is perfectly arranged : two red bands (the Ferrari) are ahead of a pair of blue (Mercedes), navy blue (Red Bull) then pink (Racing Point Force India). Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) was the fastest of this lot thanks to a lap in 1'21''105 achieved on super soft tyres.

The German, however, had a real heat with half an hour to go. The wearer of number 5 entered the Parabolic too quickly, lost grip and ended up in the gravel on the outside, scratching a piece of the rear wing.

The Mercedes hold up in comparison despite disparate performances (Lewis Hamilton third at 287 thousandths, Valtteri Bottas fourth at 698 thousandths). We only need to go back to Red Bull to see a gap of around a full second.

In his internal struggle, Esteban Ocon (Racing Point Force India) beats his teammate Sergio Pérez by a hair, who had achieved the best performance of the morning. Bothered by the same DRS problem as his colleague Marcus Ericsson, Charles Leclerc (Sauber) enters the top 10 with the ninth time, ahead of the Renault and Haas. Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso) returned to the ranks with his 14th time.

Free Practice 3 will start on Saturday morning at 11:50 a.m.

Ranking Free Practice 2 F1 at Monza: