Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in 2nd Italian GP practice

As predicted, after Lewis Hamilton let his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas be fastest in the first practice session for the Italian GP while the track was cleaned and rubber was laid down, in the 2nd practice at Monza Hamilton turned a lap of 1m20.192s to lead Bottas by 0.262s.

Hamilton’s time was 0.786s faster than Charles Leclerc’s leading time from the session last year, and Leclerc was using a cheater Ferrari engine.

Lando Norris was a distant 3rd for McLaren 0.897s back, i.e. effectively out to lunch.

Pierre Gasly was 4th quick 0.929s back while Max Verstappen rounded out the top-5 for Red Bull 1.036s back

After overcoming a near-off at the exit of Lesmo 1, Carlos Sainz Jr. was sixth in the second McLaren.

Both Ferrari drivers had off-track moments in the closing stages, with Vettel spinning in front of Daniel Ricciardo as he exited the first Lesmo, while Leclerc had a similar moment as the back end of his diabolical SF1000 also snapped left as he ran through the same corner a few minutes later.

Leclerc reported “the car is so hard to drive” over his radio.

Select Quotes

Lewis Hamilton
The car didn’t feel great in the first session but in the afternoon, it felt like we made some encouraging improvements and it was much better. We have a few more steps to make overnight and then I think it’ll be where it needs to. It’s quite a bumpy track here and with the low downforce, there’s a lot of sliding. You need to find the right balance with the bumps and between the low and high-speed turns. The field is typically a lot closer here, compared to Spa, as it’s such a fast lap and there aren’t many corners. Valtteri’s quick here, too, so it’s going to be a fun battle. It’s going to be interesting in qualifying, obviously we didn’t get our final lap in last year and I think the last corner will be a bit of a nightmare with everyone trying to get a gap, so it’s going to be hard work.

Valtteri Bottas
The car felt pretty good out there throughout the day, but there is always more to come. I’m sure we can still improve it, for example the rear stability was lacking a bit in a few of the corners. My lap in practice two wasn’t great so from my side, there’s quite a bit more to come as well. It’s an unusual track here, quite stop and start, with not so many high-speed corners and traction being very important out of the slow turns. The margins are so fine here and there aren’t many corners to make the difference. I was a little surprised by the lap times and performance compared to the others at this stage in the weekend, but I’m sure every team will find more time and it’ll be closer tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to it.

Andrew Shovlin
The car seems to be working well here and it feels like we are in a more competitive region with regards to straight line speed, compared to last weekend in Spa. Most of the day was spent understanding the tyres. It’s a bit hotter than last year, which will shift things around a bit, but overall they all seem pretty similar in terms of performance, especially on a long run. There’s the usual work to do overnight on the balance, traction is strong at the moment, and we have a few places where the front end needs to be better and others where the rear is a bit weak. Tomorrow should be interesting, to see where everyone is in terms of power in Qualifying as it’s the introduction of the new Technical Directive, that requires teams to use a single mode. The Mercedes-powered teams are probably going to be the most affected on a single lap, but our overall package has looked pretty good here today so hopefully we won’t get any nasty surprises.

Max Verstappen
“We are struggling with general balance and grip today, so we have quite a bit of work to do and it wasn’t the best start to the weekend. We were all trying to find the limits out on track and at Turn 11 if you have a bit of a moment then it is better to just let the car run wide as it doesn’t really matter during practice, which is why lots of us were having times deleted. The Team fixed my car quickly during FP1 and I didn’t have any affects from that in FP2 so there are no concerns there. I’m not too sure yet how the tire wear will be but normally if you have a balanced car then the tire wear will be ok, so we need to find that balance before qualifying.”

Alex Albon
“I was feeling okay in the morning session and the afternoon wasn’t bad, we just need to touch up a few things on the car for the low and high speed corners. It’s very close out there just as we expected and I think a tenth could be the difference between three or four positions. We know we’ve got some homework to do, so we can fine tune the car balance to where we want it to be but I think there’s potential to improve our package here. My best lap in FP2 was deleted for exceeding track limits in Turn 11 which happened to a lot of us today. What we’re seeing is people backing up into you in the last corner as they start their lap and so you get their dirty air and then you struggle to stay tight to the corner. Obviously everyone is trying to make a gap to start their lap but it should be a little easier when qualifying starts because everyone is pushing at the same time.”

Practice 2 Results