Hamilton again ahead of Rosberg in Monza
Mercedes looks well prepared for Italian Grand Prix as their drivers again were the fastest during second free practice, and again Lewis Hamilton was better than Nico Rosberg.
Second free practice again was battle of two Mercedes’, even Sebastian Vettel first set time to beat. Daniel Ricciardo suffered some problems with gearbox in early stage, but soon magaed to return on track. Lewis Hamilton then set the new best lap with 1:24.279 which was 0.8s better than Vettel’s time, while Nico Hulkenberg sneaked to third confirming that Force India had good preparation for one of the most attractive of the season.
Just as his teammate did during first free practice, Max Verstappen also went into the gravel after losing control at Ascari, but somehow managed to find a way out. At half of the session, Hamilton was still on top, but just 0.021s ahead of Nico Rosberg.
Next 15 minutes or so were pretty quiet even most cars were out, but on soft tyres. Only Force India drivers pushed harder trying to tighten a gap. Sergio Perez was fourth with less than a second behind Hamilton, pulling Hulkenberg down to fifth.
It was probably expected some more excitement during last 25 minutes of the session, as all drivers changed to prime tyres. But, Hamilton stayed in the garage until the last few minutes as mechanics worked to replace front brakes on champion’s car. Absolutely nothing interesting, except some minor problems for Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas, had happened and standings remained unchanged as drivers obviously looked for consistency, not for speed.
