Monza, FP2: Hamilton sets the pace in second practice for Italian GP

Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheet in second practice for the Italian Grand Prix, with the championship leader beating Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas by almost three tenths of a second and eclipsing next closest rival Lando Norris of McLaren by almost nine tenths of a second.

The early part of the session was quiet, with few cars on track and the bulk of running in the first 20 minutes featured a duel for top spot between Red Bull’s Alexander Albon and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly. It was a battle won by in-form Gasly but then the Mercedes drivers then emerged and Hamilton took the top spot with a 1:21.085 on the mediums.

There was then a lengthy wait before teams made the switch to soft tyres and Bottas set a new a new benchmark of 1:20.454, but Hamilton soon went beyond that, beating his teammate by 0.262s to set a best time of 1:20.192.

With Bottas second, third place might have gone to Daniel Ricciardo but after the Renault driver had posted a time of 1:20.905 but the time was deleted after he ran wide at the exit of the final corner. He plummeted down the order to P15 based on an earlier lap on medium compound tyres.

The Australian was not the only one penalised for falling foul of the timing loops installed at the famous corner with Albon, Norris and Vettel also having times deleted during the session.

Ricciardo loss was the most obvious, however, and that left third place to Norris who took the position after he put in a good lap of 1:21.089s in the final five minutes of the session.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz took sixth place ahead of AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who took ninth. The Monegasque racer’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel finished 12th. Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10 for Racing Point.