Valtteri Bottas threw his hat into the ring as a contender for Italian Grand Prix victory by edging out Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Lewis Hamilton at the top of the timesheets in second practice at Monza.
After trailing Hamilton by four-tenths of a second in FP1 on Friday morning, Bottas bounced back by getting the upper-hand over Mercedes’ chief title chaser, recording a best lap of 1:21.406 to lead FP2.
Bottas finished 0.056 seconds clear at the head of the field, leading Mercedes to another one-two finish and continuing its record of having led every session at Monza in the V6 turbo era, starting in 2014.
F1 drivers’ championship leader Sebastian Vettel was able to draw Ferrari closer to Mercedes after lagging over a second behind in FP1, finishing just a tenth off the pace in third place. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen closely followed in P4.
Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo took P5 and P6 for the second successive session, with both focusing on their race programs in FP2 given their pending grid penalties.
McLaren proved to be a surprise package in second practice as Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso took P7 and P8 respectively despite their ongoing engine troubles with Honda. The pair were seen engaging in some tow practice, with Vandoorne set to lead its charge in qualifying given Alonso’s penalty.
Esteban Ocon took P9 for Force India, while Felipe Massa completed the top 10 for Williams, leading the British team as rookie teammate Lance Stroll suffered a strange spin at Ascari that left him pointing in the wrong direction.
Carlos Sainz Jr. saw his weekend go from bad to worse, suffering a possible engine issue after receiving a grid penalty earlier in the day that forced him to park up with plumes of smoke escaping from the rear of his Toro Rosso.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen also had a session to forget, breaking the suspension on his car after running wide over the kerb at the exit of the second Lesmo.
Running at Monza continues with FP3 at 5am ET on Saturday, followed by qualifying at 8am.
