Italian GP: Mercedes stays top in FP2, Ferrari closes in

Bottas clocked a 1m21.406s on the supersoft compound tyres, 0.056 seconds ahead of Hamilton, with Sebastian Vettel just a tenth further back in third.

The track was green early on as the morning rain washed away the fresh rubber put down in opening practice.

Hamilton led the way after the opening third of the session, with Mercedes focusing on running the soft tyres early on.

When attention turned to qualifying simulations, Vettel went fastest with a 1m21.546s, which was fractionally slower than Hamilton's leading FP1 time.

Bottas then demoted Vettel and though Hamilton looked on course to usurp his teammate, he lost time in the final sector and ended up second.

Kimi Raikkonen was fourth quickest, competing his quickest time on the second flying lap on the supersofts, as Ferrari provided more of a threat to Mercedes than in FP1.

With a little over 40 minutes to go, teams started to focus on long runs in preparation for Sunday's race.

Max Verstappen was the leading Red Bull in fifth, one second off the pace, with teammate Daniel Ricciardo three tenths further back in sixth.

Both drivers face a tricky weekend as a raft of engine component changes means Ricciardo and Verstappen will face grid penalties of 20 and 15 places respectively.

The McLarens of Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso, who is set to start from the back after 35-place grid penalty for engine component changes, showed an impressive turn of speed in seventh and eighth respectively, 1.5s off the pace.

Esteban Ocon and Felipe Massa, who aborted his first low-fuel run when he put two wheels on the gravel on the exit of the second chicane, completed the top 10.

Carlos Sainz, who has a 10-place grid penalty after his team changed the MGU-H, was 11th quickest.

However, his session ended early when his Renault engine let go and he stopped his Toro Rosso after the second chicane.

His teammate Daniil Kvyat, who was 18th quickest and set his best time on the softs, ended his session early when he was called back into the pits after his team found a problem with the car.

The Renaults of Nico Hulkenberg, who spent much of the latter part of the session in the garage, and Jolyon Palmer were evenly matched in 12th and 13th, with just under half a tenth separating them.

Lance Stroll recovered from a spin at the Ascari chicane to end the session 15th quickest, four tenths adrift of Williams teammate Massa.

The Haas duo of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were just over two seconds off the pace in 16th and 17th.

In the closing minutes of the session, Magnussen stopped at the Ascari chicane reporting "broken suspension", leading to the deployment of the virtual safety car.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	25	1'21.406
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	24	1'21.462	0.056
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	33	1'21.546	0.140
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	34	1'21.804	0.398
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	34	1'22.409	1.003
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	22	1'22.752	1.346
7	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Honda	31	1'22.947	1.541
8	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	31	1'22.968	1.562
9	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	43	1'22.977	1.571
10	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	42	1'22.985	1.579
11	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Renault	21	1'23.150	1.744
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	14	1'23.272	1.866
13	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	34	1'23.317	1.911
14	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	43	1'23.352	1.946
15	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	36	1'23.403	1.997
16	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	31	1'23.567	2.161
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	20	1'23.650	2.244
18	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Renault	28	1'24.253	2.847
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	39	1'24.894	3.488
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	Ferrari	25	1'25.295	3.889