Everything going to plan for confident Hamilton and Bottas

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If you want proof that Mercedes is feeling happy with how things are going at Monza, then the early finish to Friday afternoon practice for Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas spoke volumes.

The team packed up early at the end of the second 90-minute session - not because of any problems, but simply because they felt their work here was done for the day.

"It's been a good day, a clean day," Hamilton said afterwards. "We got the running done, we got through our programme with no problems.

"The car seems nicely balanced here," he added. "We just have some work to do to eke out a little bit more performance."

Hamilton finished the morning practice almost half a second clear of his team mate, and over a second faster than the Ferraris.

In the afternoon, Bottas took the honours by a narrow margin. But Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel had moved within two tenths of Mercedes.

"It looks quite close between us and the Ferraris," Hamilton predicted. "I anticipate it's going to be similar to the last race in that sense."

Last year saw Hamilton start from pole, but finish second behind Nico Rosberg with the Ferraris having to settle for third and fourth.

FP2: Bottas pips Hamilton as Mercedes stay top in Monza

Bottas was also feeling confident heading into the Italian Grand Prix. He's now over his disappointment last week at Spa where he struggled for pace.

"I think it was a good day," said the Finn. "At least I have a better feeling than I had after the Friday in Spa. Everything started on the right foot.

"Initially in FP1 we went slightly in the wrong direction with the setup," he continued. "But we managed to change it around for FP2 and the car felt a lot better.

"We got our full plan done," he confirmed. "Overall it was a positive day. The car is looking strong, but obviously it's the next two days that count."

The team's technical director James Allison added that the early finish to Mercedes' Friday track activity was partly down to the weather forecasts.

"It was a slightly unusual Friday because the forecasts were quite pessimistic about the rain. Overly pessimistic as it turned out," said Allison.

"It meant that we put quite a bit of what we would normally do in the afternoon into the morning session. Considering the slightly unusual nature of the day, we're quite pleased with the way it's worked out.

"Both drivers looked fairly competitive on both the long runs and the short runs.

"There is a threat of rain for tomorrow, so all bets might be off for what we learned today. But it will be a dry race, so looking strong in the dry today is a good sign."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.