Vettel pips Hamilton in FP2

Preparation for the Italian Grand Prix resumed this afternoon with another 90-minute practice session.

Conditions were still dry and warm which meant the teams could serenely work through their program.

Cars filtered out of the pitlane as the track was opened. Toro Rosso’s Alguersuari led the way and set the early benchmark. It was quickly lowered by Renault’s Vitaly Petrov. Sergio Pérez then took its turn at the front as the top teams’ drivers bided their time.

This morning’s pacesetter Lewis Hamilton set the ball rolling and went top of the list with his first timed lap on the session. Less than ten minutes in, Sébastien Buemi ran wide at the Parabolica and damaged his Toro Rosso in the tyre barrier.

As soon as the track was clear again, Button moved up the order and demoted his teammate to 2nd place. Hamilton lost two more places as the Red Bull drivers gathered some pace and split the McLarens. They had more in store and they soon grabbed the top spots. The Ferraris joined the party and initially settled in fourth and fifth positions.

As Vettel lowered his own benchmark, Massa moved up to 2nd. Alonso then slotted behind Vettel who continued to hammer round and further improved. When he pitted, he was leading from Alonso, Massa and Webber. The four of them were covered by a second.

The middle part of the session was dedicated, for many teams, to longer runs on the harder tyres in order to evaluate their durability and pace in race conditions. Hamilton managed to improve to 2nd quickest.

At the midway point, Pérez and Rosberg started runs on the softer tyre. The Sauber driver set the third quickest time while the German took it easy. Schumacher made the most of his yellow-ringed rubber and topped the timesheet – 0.046s ahead of Vettel. The former World Champion found more pace on his second flying lap and improved by almost half a second.

Massa then took 2nd, thousandths of a second behind Schumacher. The McLaren and Red Bull drivers subsequently came out for a first effort on the soft tyre. While Vettel struggled through heavy traffic, Hamilton set the fastest time. The Briton had more in store but was forced to abort a rapid lap as he came across Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso. Vettel, meanwhile, improved and reclaimed the lead.

Schumacher was still in third place, ahead of Massa, Webber and Button. The hierarchy didn’t evolve in the final part of the session as the drivers completed some heavy-fuelled runs on the softer tyre. In this configuration, the Red Bulls were arguably quicker than the rest of the field. However, one doesn’t know which fuel load each driver was carrying for this last run.

Vettel stayed on top with Hamilton second and Schumacher third. Massa was fourth ahead of Alonso, Webber and Button. Pérez, Kobayashi and Senna completed the top ten.