Hamilton: Mercedes is still lagging behind Ferrari

A week on from the Belgian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton admits that it's clear Mercedes is still lacking in power compared to Ferrari after ending up 0.287s slower than Sebastian Vettel today.

"We did plenty of laps this afternoon in the dry and we could see that, like in Spa, we had a small gap to Ferrari on both the short and the long runs," he reported at the end of Friday's free practice sessions at Monza.

"My laps felt pretty good, but Ferrari was a little bit quicker today.

"It has been a big battle for a number of races now," he acknowledged. "They have had a small advantage since the middle of the summer. But we are pushing as hard as we can to overcome that.

"We're all working flat out right now in every part of the team, and we have work to do tonight as well," he continued. "But there are some areas where we can see deficits.

"I hope we can make a little step for qualifying," he said. "It will be a very close fight tomorrow and, like every race weekend, we will be giving it everything we've got."

Vettel fastest in Monza FP2 after early Ericsson red flag

Hamilton was relieved that the weather cleared up to allow them to get enough laps in the books after lunch, after a rain-hit morning session had left him twiddling his thumbs.

"We woke up to torrential rain this morning, which meant it was a less busy first session than normal," he said.

"We did a few laps but after that it was like having a day in the office when you don't have too much work to do. I was even snoozing in the car at one point!"

Hamilton's team mate Valtteri Bottas also largely sat out the morning session. In the afternoon he ended up fourth fastest behind his team mate in the drier conditions.

"As expected, Ferrari seemed very quick in the dry," said the Finn. "It's not going to be easy, but we still have a few things we can improve for qualifying.

"Compared to Spa, the car felt better in the slow corners which is a good step in the right direction.

"The weather forecast for tomorrow is not entirely conclusive, so we need to be prepared for everything and get a lot of running done in FP3 no matter if it's wet or dry"

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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.