The Japan Times - Russell tops second practice to beat Ferrari and Antonelli in Italy

Russell, who was three-tenths of a second adrift in third place in the opening session, led the way with a best lap of one minute and 22.559 seconds to finish 0.120sec clear of Charles Leclerc with Antonelli third, 0.141sec adrift.

World champion Lando Norris was fourth for McLaren ahead of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who had been second behind Leclerc, sporting a special livery to celebrate Michael Schumacher's first Monza win 30 years ago, in a Ferrari 1-2 earlier in the day.

Oscar Piastri was sixth in the second McLaren.

The top six were separated by 0.469 seconds with Racing Bulls' rookie Arvid Lindblad taking seventh ahead of Oliver Bearman of Haas, four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull and Yuki Tsunoda in the second Racing Bulls car.

It was a very satisfactory session for Russell who, together with Hamilton, is 59 points behind Antonelli in the drivers' title race and knows he nust take full advantage of the young Italian's engine penalties that require him to start from the back of the grid on Sunday.

The backdrop to the day, however, was a spicy spat between the Alpine and McLaren teams after the International Court of Appeal upheld an appeal by Red Bull and McLaren concerning the result of the Monaco Grand Prix.

That led to Alpine's Pierre Gasly dropping from third to seventh, replaced by Red Bull's Isack Hadjar as Oscar Piastri rose to fourth in a reshuffled outcome.

Alpine's team boss Flavio Briatore told a press conference he questioned the impartiality of the court, pointing out that one of the four judges had close connections with McLaren, a claim that was robustly repudiated with team chief Andrea Stella describing the Italian's remarks as "insulting".

S.Suzuki--JT