Hamilton Sets the Pace in Second Practice for Italian GP

By FIA

Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheet in second practice for the Italian Grand Prix, with the championship leader beating Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas by almost three tenths of a second and eclipsing next closest rival Lando Norris of McLaren by almost nine tenths of a second.

The early part of the session was quiet, with few cars on track and the bulk of running in the first 20 minutes featured a duel for top spot between Red Bull’s Alexander Albon and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly. It was a battle won by in-form Gasly but then the Mercedes drivers then emerged and Hamilton took the top spot with a 1:21.085 on the mediums.

There was then a lengthy wait before teams made the switch to soft tires and Bottas set a new a new benchmark of 1:20.454, but Hamilton soon went beyond that, beating his teammate by 0.262s to set a best time of 1:20.192.

With Bottas second, third place might have gone to Daniel Ricciardo but after the Renault driver had posted a time of 1:20.905 but the time was deleted after he ran wide at the exit of the final corner. He plummeted down the order to P15 based on an earlier lap on medium compound tyres.

The Australian was not the only one penalized for falling foul of the timing loops installed at the famous corner with Albon, Norris and Vettel also having times deleted during the session.

Ricciardo loss was the most obvious, however, and that left third place to Norris who took the position after he put in a good lap of 1:21.089s in the final five minutes of the session.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz took sixth place ahead of AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who took ninth. The Monegasque racer’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel finished 12th. Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10 for Racing Point.

2020 FIA Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:20.192 32 260.060
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:20.454 0.262 29 259.213
3 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 1:21.089 0.897 19 257.184
4 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:21.121 0.929 25 257.082
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:21.228 1.036 30 256.743
6 Carlos Sainz McLaren/Renault 1:21.313 1.121 30 256.475
7 Daniil Kvyat AlphaTauri/Honda 1:21.376 1.184 35 256.277
8 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 1:21.389 1.197 32 256.236
9 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:21.503 1.311 32 255.877
10 Sergio Pérez Racing Point/Mercedes 1:21.594 1.402 31 255.592
11 Esteban Ocon Renault 1:21.697 1.505 32 255.270
12 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:21.733 1.541 28 255.157
13 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:21.786 1.594 32 254.992
14 Alexander Albon Red Bull/Honda 1:21.883 1.691 36 254.690
15 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:22.080 1.888 29 254.078
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:22.088 1.896 32 254.054
17 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:22.147 1.955 34 253.871
18 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1:22.254 2.062 34 253.541
19 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:22.825 2.633 32 251.793
20 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:22.927 2.735 34 251.483