0.021s between Hamilton and Rosberg in FP2

Lewis Hamilton again set the fastest time during Friday practice for the Italian Grand Prix, edging out team-mate Nico Rosberg by just 0.021s.

The Mercedes pair were ominously fast in the opening practice session, enjoying an advantage of more than a second as the defending champions ran an updated power unit. The margin was smaller in FP2 as Sebastian Vettel ended the session three quarters of a second adrift of Hamilton's best time, with the two Mercedes drivers closely matched.

With the best times being set on the soft compound tyre in the afternoon session, drivers were finding a second timed lap yielded a quicker lap time. Hamilton was improving having set the fastest first sector but backed off before the end of his second lap, while Rosberg also failed to improve.

In a carbon copy of the opening session, the two Force Indias managed to split the Ferraris with Sergio Perez 0.047s quicker than team-mate Nico Hulkenberg. Kimi Raikkonen was again sixth, though his best lap on soft tyres will have been hampered after encountering a Manor in the final sector.

Following on from Romain Grosjean's podium in Belgium, Lotus again looked strong as Grosjean finished the session seventh ahead of team-mate Pastor Maldonado in eighth. The pair were split by just 0.016s as a number of team-mates were close during FP2.

Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa rounded out the top ten, with Williams traditionally running very high fuel in Friday practice.

In another repeat of the morning session, a Toro Rosso left the track at high speed, but this time it was Max Verstappen losing control of his car. Verstappen arrived at Ascari with the rear attempting to overtake the front of the car, sending him bouncing backwards across the gravel. However, he was able to get the car moving forward quickly and recovered to the pits.

Jenson Button was hit by yet more reliability issues after just three laps of the session, being called back to the pits where an ERS problem ended his running. Button's car had a cordon set up around it in the garage as McLaren worked to understand the issue.

Having missed a large section of running at the start of the session while Red Bull mechanics worked on his car, Daniil Kvyat finished with the slowest time as he focused on race pace with the team due to take power unit penalties this weekend.

Click here for Chris Medland's Italian Grand Prix preview and bold podium prediction. 

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