» Mercedes dominates Friday practice at Monza

Mercedes-AMG maintained its position at the top of the practice timesheets at the Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix, almost a second quicker than the rest of the field.

This time, however, it was Lewis Hamilton who was quicker than Valtteri Bottas, with the pair reversing their finishing order from FP1 where the Finn was fastest overall.

Hamilton’s fastest time, a 1:20.192, was over three-quarters of a second quicker than the best time of FP2 posted last year by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. This fact highlighted not only how much Mercedes has improved as the frontrunning team of the season, but also how much Ferrari has slumped – Leclerc couldn’t even get this year’s Ferrari within half a second of his FP2 time from the year before…

Bottas finished second-fastest, just over a quarter of a second off Hamilton’s pace, while McLaren’s Lando Norris impressed to go third-fastest. The British youngster was impacted by power unit issues for much of the session, making his performance all the more eye-catching.

Having finished an unexpected fourth- and sixth-fastest in FP1, Scuderia AlphaTauri repeated the feat in the afternoon’s session. Pierre Gasly finished as the fastest Honda-powered runner in fourth-fastest, while his teammate Daniil Kvyat was seventh-quickest. The duo was split by Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr.

Both Racing Point Mercedes’ finished inside the top ten, with Lance Stroll P8 and teammate Sergio Pérez P10. The pair was separated by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who gave the Italian team its first top-ten appearance in a practice session since the Spanish Grand Prix.

Track limits were very much a topic of focus during the session, with several runners exceeding the margins of the Parabolica and having their lap times deleted. Those to principally fall victim included Sebastian Vettel, Alexander Albon and Daniel Ricciardo, who all were stripped of their fastest laps.

Vettel’s struggles with the inconsistent handling of his Ferrari SF1000 continued into FP2; the German had a spin at the exit of Lesmo 1.

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO HEINEKEN D’ITALIA 2020 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 2
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11	1:20.192		32
2.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes-AMG F1 Team W11	1:20.454	+ 0.262	29
3.	Lando Norris	McLaren F1 Team MCL35	1:21.089	+ 0.897	19
4.	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01	1:21.121	+ 0.929	25
5.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing RB16	1:21.228	+ 1.036	30
6.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren F1 Team MCL35	1:21.313	+ 1.121	30
7.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia AlfaTauri AT01	1:21.376	+ 1.184	35
8.	Lance Stroll	Racing Point F1 Team RP20	1:21.389	+ 1.197	32
9.	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari SF1000	1:21.503	+ 1.311	32
10.	Sergio Pérez	Racing Point F1 Team RP20	1:21.594	+ 1.402	31
11.	Esteban Ocon	Renault F1 Team R.S.20	1:21.697	+ 1.505	32
12.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF1000	1:21.733	+ 1.541	28
13.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing C39	1:21.786	+ 1.594	32
14.	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing RB16	1:21.883	+ 1.691	36
15.	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team R.S.20	1:22.080	+ 1.888	29
16.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team VF-20	1:22.088	+ 1.896	32
17.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing C39	1:22.147	+ 1.955	34
18.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team VF-20	1:22.254	+ 2.062	34
19.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Racing FW43	1:22.825	+ 2.633	32
20.	George Russell	Williams Racing FW43	1:22.927	+ 2.735	34