Monza, FP2: Rosberg sets the pace in second practice in Italy

Nico Rosberg was quickest in the Friday afternoon practice session at Monza as team-mate Lewis Hamilton was restricted to Mercedes’ garage for just over an hour with electronics problems.

Rosberg set the pace at 1:26.225 on the medium Pirelli tyre, just before the hour mark in the 90-minute session. Until that point there had been no sign of his title rival tem-mate but soon after Rosberg’s quickest run Hamilton was clambering into his repaired W05 and was on track. In the end he got as close as P2, with a lap just 0.061 adrift of the German but it was Rosberg who took the afternoon spoils.

Kimi Raikkonen followed up a good morning session performance, in which he finished, with third in the afternoon, just ahead of team-mate Fernando Alonso. The lead Ferrari finished the session, just a tenth down on Rosberg and just over two tenths clear of his team-mate.

In the opening phases of the session, Rosberg was quickest on the hard compound Pirelli, with a time of 1:26.786s. The German’s time was just thousandths of a second clear of Alonso, with the Italian seeming to indulge in a little low-fuel showboating in front of its home fans.

Third fastest on the medium tyre was Jenson Button, the McLaren driver finishing just four hundredths ahead of team-mate Kevin Magnussen. Fifth was Sebastian Vettel. Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo found it hard to bounce back after power unit problems in the morning but at least made into the top 10 just before the medium-tyre runs began.

Force India’s Sergio Perez was the first to bolt on a set of this weekend’s option tyres but it was Rosberg who quickly rose to the top again, the German posting a lap of 1:26.225 to annex P1, ahead of Valtteri Bottas who were finally beginning to show their hand after a quiet morning session saw the Finn finish 12th ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa.

Bottas was soon displaced by Alonso, however, and then by the Spaniard’s team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who got closest to Rosberg with a time of 1m26.331s, just a tenth off the German’s best. At the hour mark that left the order as Rosberg, Raikkonen, Alonso, Bottas, Button and Vettel. Seventh was Magnussen, ahead of Massa, Ricciardo and Perez.

That was the cue for Hamilton to finally clamber into his Mercedes and head out on track for his first run, on the hard tyre compound.

His first effort saw him rise to P12 with a time of 1:27.352 and he was quickly on the radio reporting “a lot of understeer”. He made his way back to the pit lane for a change and emerged on medium tyres. He immediately vaulted to P2, just six hundredths of a second adrift of his team-mate with a lap of 1:26.286.

Behind them the order remained the same as had filled the top 10 after 60 minutes, with only Perez moving, the Mexican dropping out of the top 10 as Hamilton rose through the order.