» Rosberg ends Friday practice on top

Nico Rosberg has ended Friday at Monza fastest ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who missed the first hour of the session due to an electrical issue.

A nagging problem from FP1 disrupted Hamilton’s weekend, as the team struggled to get his car started for FP2. Once he returned to the track he wasted no time getting up to speed, going second fastest and sitting 0.061 seconds of his team-mates pace.

Both Mercedes race simulations seemed straight forward; fast but not suspiciously fast which suggests both cars are running slightly heavier fuel loads. Rosberg completed 41 laps compared to Hamilton’s 16.

Ferrari remained at the sharp end of the grid, this time it was Kimi Raikkonen leading the charge in third. He led Fernando Alonso who was in fourth by two tenths of a second.

Daniel Ricciardo again had a troubled session, struggling to get to grips with his RB10 which continued to cause headaches for the Aussie, with persisting electrical problems.

Both of the Lotus cars performed horribly under braking, as Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado were continuously locking their brakes and taking adventures off the track.

Marussia’s Jules Bianchi capitalised on their troubles and finished in seventeenth position, ahead of both the Lotus drivers.

Williams had a much better session than FP1, with Valtteri Bottas displaying impressive consistency over his race simulation. He was half a second quicker than Felipe Massa on the same tyre on more than one occasion.

Force India was again quickest through the speed trap, this time it was Nico Hülkenberg taking the honours. He was clocked at 348.8km/h, which was 7.7km/h quicker than last year’s fastest.

2014 Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Results:

	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:26.225		41
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:26.286	+ 0.061	16
3.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:26.331	+ 0.106	31
4.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:26.565	+ 0.340	26
5.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:26.758	+ 0.533	34
6.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:26.762	+ 0.537	34
7.	Sebastian Vettel	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:26.762	+ 0.537	27
8.	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:26.881	+ 0.656	44
9.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:26.935	+ 0.710	33
10.	Daniel Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:26.992	+ 0.767	37
11.	Sergio Pérez	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:27.079	+ 0.854	42
12.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:27.227	+ 1.002	39
13.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:27.476	+ 1.251	37
14.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:27.840	+ 1.615	33
15.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:27.929	+ 1.704	33
16.	Adrian Sutil	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:28.029	+ 1.804	35
17.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:28.659	+ 2.434	34
18.	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:28.700	+ 2.475	42
19.	Max Chilton	Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:28.786	+ 2.561	29
20.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:29.085	+ 2.860	29
21.	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:29.178	+ 2.953	32
22.	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:29.275	+ 3.050	37