The sunshine continued over Imola for the second practice session of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, with all drivers heading out on track in the first few minutes. It didn’t take long for the action to begin.

Lewis Hamilton had a difficult time. He ran wide at Tamburello on his first flying lap, and later went off again at the Variante Alta. The seven-time champion also appeared frustrated by slower traffic and struggled with his car’s braking system, telling the team over the radio that the brakes were “a problem”. His teammate Charles Leclerc reported similar issues later on.

McLaren made a strong start, with Lando Norris setting the early pace on medium tyres, ahead of Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. Fernando Alonso had a close call, second one today, when he had to avoid a slow-moving Franco Colapinto at Tamburello. “I nearly crashed,” Alonso said on the team radio.

As the session progressed and drivers switched to soft tyres, George Russell briefly went quickest using the new C6 compound. Verstappen came close to matching him but missed out by just 0.042 seconds.

In the final part of the session, teams moved on to longer runs to gather data for Sunday. Charles Leclerc wasn’t happy with Ferrari’s handling, pointing out issues in several corners over the radio.

There were still tense moments on track. Antonelli criticised a slow Red Bull for dangerous driving, while Verstappen got stuck behind Colapinto and complained that something was hitting his foot under braking. He later said a loose nut had fallen into his seat.

The session was briefly stopped when Isack Hadjar spun at Tamburello and hit the barriers. He tried to get back on track but instead gpt stuck in the gravel. His car couldn’t be moved quickly, bringing out a red flag with six minutes left. The session resumed with just enough time for drivers to perform some practice starts.

At the end of the day, it was a strong result for McLaren once again, with Piastri and Norris at the top and Gasly rounding out the top three. George Russell took fourth place for Mercedes, just ahead of Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull was nearly half a second slower than Piastri’s benchmark.

Ferrari continued to face challenges, with Charles Leclerc finishing sixth and teammate Lewis Hamilton only 11th after an off-track moment at Variante Alta. Isack Hadjar impressed in seventh for Racing Bulls, followed by Yuki Tsunoda in eighth. Alexander Albon secured ninth for Williams, with Carlos Sainz rounding out the top ten.