Valtteri Bottas has ended the second practice session at Monza on top with a lap time of 1:21.406. Mercedes still appear to be strongest around the iconic circuit but Ferrari pulled back some time, with Sebastian Vettel ending up only a tenth and a half behind the Finn in third place.
In between Bottas and Vettel was Lewis Hamilton who himself was only five hundredths of a second down on the quickest time. Ending the day in fourth was the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen who failed to match his teammate's pace over one lap.
Fifth and sixth was once again the two Red Bull's, with Max Verstappen ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. During the first practice session, it was confirmed that both racers would drop a number of places on Sunday's race grid due to going over the power unit component limit.
The two McLaren's sprung a surprise as Stoffel Vandoorne set an impressive lap time of 1:22.947 to go seventh fastest, followed by teammate Fernando Alonso in eighth who was only marginally behind the Belgian driver. Alonso will take a 35-place grid penalty this weekend.
Esteban Ocon was ninth place followed by Felipe Massa who rounded out the top ten. Williams appears to have more pace than it did one week ago in Belgium when it struggled on the Friday around the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and will be hoping to add points to its tally come Sunday.
Carlos Sainz was eleventh but his day ended in disappointment as a hydraulic issue forced him to pull over before the first Lesmo corner with smoke pouring out of the rear of his Toro Rosso. Sainz headed the two Renaults of Nico Hulkenberg and Jolyon Palmer in twelfth and thirteenth.
Problems for @Carlossainz55... #FP2 ___Escaped_link_66dcecf3a1833___ ?? ___Escaped_link_66dcecf3a1834___ pic.twitter.com/Vx9YdMXvuM
— Formula 1 (@F1) ___Escaped_link_66dcecf3a1836___
Sergio Perez was fourteenth ahead of Lance Stroll who had a violent spin at the Ascari chicane early in the session. Haas was sixteenth and seventeenth, with Romain Grosjean in front of Kevin Magnussen. The Dane's rear suspension failed late on in the session forcing him to park and jump out of the car.
Daniil Kvyat was the only driver at the end of the session in front of the Saubers who are set to struggle massively with a year-old Ferrari power unit. Marcus Ericsson led Pascal Wehrlein by four-tenths of a second.
MAG's @HaasF1Team car has been lifted off track (a suspected broken suspension) with just under 10 mins of FP2 to go #ItalianGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/8r7Bxl7BTT
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 1, 2017
Fergal Walsh
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Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
Replies (2)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Surely this isnt representative? McLaren is far too high up for that to be the case.
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
Slipstream of dreams