Ferrari capped an impressive first day on track for their heavily-upgraded car at their home Emilia Romagna GP as Charles Leclerc again set the pace in Practice Two, as Red Bull and Max Verstappen were left trailing on day one at Imola.

With McLaren also showing strong pace to take second through Oscar Piastri two weeks on from Lando Norris’ breakthrough win in Miami, world champions Red Bull finished half a second adrift in unusually-lowly positions of seventh and eighth on the headline timesheet despite near-uninterrupted Friday running at a sun-kissed Imola circuit.

Red Bull also finished behind Yuki Tsunoda from sister team RB, as he took an impressive third place, and both Mercedes drivers, with Lewis Hamilton fourth – despite on-track run-ins with Verstappen and Fernando Alonso – and George Russell fifth.

During a run on the soft tyres with which he set his distant seventh-quickest effort, Verstappen said over team radio: “My God. I don’t know, man. It’s so difficult everything, man. This time suddenly the front grips up a lot, I almost spin.”

Verstappen again ran into the gravel in the closing minutes of the session on his heavier-fuel long run, having twice run off track in the earlier Practice One session. However, the RB20’s pace did look more competitive relative to Ferrari on the longer runs.

Leclerc, who had already set the pace in the weekend’s first practice session, topped Friday’s second hour of running by almost two tenths of a second from Piastri with a best lap of 1:15.906.

Carlos Sainz was only sixth in the second Ferrari, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez eighth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in ninth for Haas and Aston Martin’s Alonso in 10th.

Norris finished outside the top 10 in 12th having abandoned what would have been his quickest lap after running wide at the final corner, having been on course to set what would have been the quickest time at that point of the session.

More to follow…

Sky Sports F1’s live Emilia Romagna GP schedule

Saturday May 18
9am: F3 Sprint
11:15am: Emilia Romagna GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.10pm: Emilia Romagna GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: Emilia Romagna GP Qualifying
5pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
5.30pm: Indy 500 Qualifying

Sunday May 19
7.30am: F3 Feature Race
9am: F2 Feature Race
12:30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Emilia Romagna GP build-up
2pm: The EMILIA ROMAGNA GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: Emilia Romagna GP reaction
5pm: Ted’s Notebook
8pm: Indy 500 Qualifying

Formula 1 heads to Europe as Imola returns to the calendar following last year’s cancelled race. Watch the Emilia Romagna GP this weekend, with Sunday’s race at 2pm. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime