Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Italian GP: Lewis Hamilton edges Nico Rosberg in FP2 at Monza

Lewis Hamilton again held the edge over Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Nico Rosberg as their team remained dominant in second Italian Grand Prix practice at Monza

Although the gap from the fastest Mercedes time to best-of-the-rest Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari in third came down from the morning's 1.5-second gulf to a less daunting seven tenths, the champion team and its newly upgraded engine remained a class apart.

Hamilton was three tenths of a second faster than Rosberg by the time they had finished their opening runs on medium tyres.

It looked like the German might upstage his title rival on softs as he set a quicker pace through the lap's first two sectors when they changed emphasis in the middle of the session.

But Rosberg lost time on the run through the Parabolica and fell short by 0.021s at the line.

Ferrari had initially held a crowd-pleasing one-two in the early moments before the Mercedes got up to speed.

Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen ended up third and sixth, split by the Mercedes-powered Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.

The Ferraris were the only non-Mercedes-powered cars in the top 10, as Lotus pair Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado led Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in seventh through 10th places.

While plenty of drivers visited chicane escape roads or flirted with track limits misbehaviour, the most attention-grabbing incident came from a Toro Rosso rookie again.

After Carlos Sainz Jr's high-speed spin into the Parabolica in the morning, it was Max Verstappen's turn in practice two.

He lost it under braking into the Ascari chicane and flew backwards into the gravel, stopping just before the tyre wall and managing to plough his way out.

Drivers in mechanical trouble included Daniel Ricciardo, who had to crawl back to the Red Bull pits in first gear due to a hydraulic problem. It was rectified in time for him to rejoin later.

His team-mate Daniil Kvyat spent most of the session on medium tyres and was slowest as Red Bull - guaranteed tail-end starts as it makes a double engine change on both cars - opted out of trying for low-fuel times.

Kvyat was slower even than Jenson Button, who managed only three laps before McLaren summoned him into the pits with a technical worry.

FP2 RESULT

Pos Driver Car Gap Laps
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m24.279s 27
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 0.021s 35
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 0.759s 36
4 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 0.999s 34
5 Nico Hulkenberg Force India/Mercedes 1.046s 43
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1.101s 39
7 Romain Grosjean Lotus/Mercedes 1.218s 41
8 Pastor Maldonado Lotus/Mercedes 1.234s 41
9 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes 1.368s 34
10 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1.612s 31
11 Felipe Nasr Sauber/Ferrari 1.835s 30
12 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 1.854s 32
13 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1.943s 27
14 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso/Renault 2.175s 38
15 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso/Renault 2.362s 50
16 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Honda 2.687s 31
17 Will Stevens Marussia/Ferrari 3.922s 29
18 Roberto Merhi Marussia/Ferrari 4.160s 27
19 Jenson Button McLaren/Honda 4.192s 3
20 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull/Renault 4.444s 28

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Italian GP: Red Bull F1 team plans double Renault engine change
Next article McLaren F1 team "intends" to keep Jenson Button for 2016

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe