Hamilton fastest as Ferrari closes gap in FP2

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Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of FP2 for the Italian Grand Prix as Ferrari closed the gap to Mercedes at Monza.

With Nico Rosberg having been quickest in the morning session, Hamilton hit back to lead his team-mate by 0.193s on Friday afternoon. Mercedes had been over a second clear of the rest of the field in FP1 but that gap was greatly reduced when Ferrari used the supersoft tyres for qualifying runs.

Sebastian Vettel was within half a second of Hamilton's best time and just 0.260s slower than Rosberg in third place. With Ferrari having introduced a power unit upgrade - costing it its final three development tokens - Kimi Raikkonen was fourth, less than 0.2s adrift.

The reduced gap highlighted Mercedes' struggles with getting as much performance out of the supersoft tyres compared to its rivals, which could prove more of a problem at Monza than it was in Spa as the tyres performed better over a long run during FP2.

Red Bull was next on the timing screens as Max Verstappen was fifth and Daniel Ricciardo sixth, although Verstappen was over 0.9s off the pace on a circuit not suited to the Renault power unit.

McLaren surprised after problems for Fernando Alonso, who suffered a reported hydraulic leak which prevented him running at the start of the session. Alonso also stopped at the end of the pit lane and complained of a clutch problem, but he rejoined on superset tyres to set the seventh fastest time ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Romain Grosjean and team-mate Jenson Button.

While Bottas was inside the top ten, team-mate Felipe Massa was hampered by brake problems which saw him limited to just 20 laps and miss out on a long run. However, Williams found itself ahead of Force India following quick lap times from Sergio Perez in FP1.

Esteban Ocon's session came to an early end when his Manor stopped just before the Lesmo curves, which required a brief Virtual Safety Car period to clear. At the end of running the Frenchman was two places behind team-mate Pascal Wehrlein but still found himself ahead of both Renaults, Daniil Kvyat's Toro Rosso and Felipe Nasr's Sauber.

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PosDriverTeamTimeLaps
01Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:22.80140
02Nico RosbergMercedes1:22.99442
03Sebastian VettelFerrari1:23.25433
04Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1:23.42728
05Max VerstappenRed Bull1:23.73225
06Daniel RicciardoRed Bull1:24.00333
07Fernando AlonsoMcLaren1:24.25924
08Valtteri BottasWilliams1:24.29941
09Romain GrosjeanHaas1:24.51635
10Jenson ButtonMcLaren1:24.54928
11Felipe MassaWilliams1:24.55620
12Nico HulkenbergForce India1:24.58740
13Sergio PerezForce India1:24.65342
14Esteban GutierrezHaas1:24.67433
15Marcus EricssonSauber1:24.98125
16Pascal WehrleinManor1:25.08338
17Carlos SainzToro Rosso1:25.24031
18Esteban OconManor1:25.27513
19Kevin MagnussenRenault1:25.55539
20Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1:25.61433
21Felipe NasrSauber1:25.64331
22Jolyon PalmerRenault1:25.83345