Hamilton fastest as Mercedes dominates second Monza practice

Lewis Hamilton gave Mercedes a clean sweep on Friday as he topped Formula 1 free practice two at Monza ahead of his team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

Bottas appeared to have the edge in FP1, but Hamilton fired back as running on the softest tyre took precedence for the majority of the session.

Hamilton’s first rapid lap sent him to the top of the leaderboard, and his second put him 0.262s clear of his team-mate, who appears to be less happy with the rear of his car.

Third was hotly contested throughout the session and was held by a number of drivers, but the otherwise troubled Lando Norris of McLaren claimed it within the last five minutes.

Norris suffered through the session, only netting 19 laps after power unit issues truncated his running, but even without a significant tow he was able to claim best of the rest behind the Mercedes cars courtesy of a low-fuel run.

Pierre Gasly had made third his own until then, having gone quickest overall on the medium tyre to hold the top spot for most of the first 30 minutes, before improving on the soft tyre later on.

AlphaTauri managed fourth and six in FP1 on the medium tyre, and impressed further, which was proven by Gasly jumping ahead of his ex-team-mate Max Verstappen despite an issue with the rear for the Frenchman towards the end of the session.

Verstappen had crashed at Ascari in FP1 but recovered to have a trouble-free second session, even if he was bested by his Red Bull squad’s feeder team. His long-running pace appeared to be closest of anyone to the Mercedes pilots, predictably.

Carlos Sainz earned sixth in a good session for McLaren, but had an off at first Lesmo corner – running wide at the exit – shortly after setting his best time.

Kvyat took seventh for AlphaTauri, ahead of the top Racing Point of Lance Stroll.

Stroll and his team-mate Sergio Perez sandwiched the top Ferrari in ninth, as Charles Leclerc continued to be the best of the team’s pair as Sebastian Vettel had another scruffy session.

Second to last in FP1, Vettel had ran wide at the first Lesmo in the morning and spun in the afternoon, ending the day 11th fastest in FP2.

Leclerc had an off of his own at the end of the session, later adding “the car is so hard to drive”.

Behind Perez, Esteban Ocon was 11th for Renault in a session where his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had a time which would have put him comfortably in the top 10 before it was pinged for track limits.

Through FP2 track limits and traffic issues continued to be a constant factor, with many drivers’ best laps ruined by both issues.

Antonio Giovinazzi was the top Ferrari customer powered-car in 13th ahead of Verstappen’s team-mate Alex Albon, who had a faster lap disallowed earlier in the session. He continued to be one of the busiest drivers of the day though, putting another 36 laps on the board.

The Haas duo of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean sandwiched Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo, running 16th-18th.

The Williams pair rounded out the order as Nicholas Latifi went quicker than George Russell, the latter of which had given up his car to Roy Nissany in FP1.

Practice 2 Results