Bottas is required during the 2nd practice session

Photo: Luca Bruno, Associated Press

Valtteri Bottas has signed a time of one minute and 21,406 seconds, 0,056 second better than Lewis Hamilton.

With his tires left covered in dust, Lewis Hamilton was unable to overtake his team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the second practice session in preparation for the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Italy, on Friday.

After being released wide in the second chicane, Hamilton found himself in the gravel and has lost all hope to beat the lap time of his team-mate at Mercedes.

Bottas has signed a time of one minute and 21,406 seconds, 0,056 second better than Hamilton.

“It was a good day — at least, I have the impression that it’s going to be better than at Spa last Friday, where everything was worked through, said Bottas, who has just accept a contract extension with Mercedes.. We are briefly deluded into settings during the first practice session, but we corrected the situation in time for the second, and the car was much more powerful.It is, therefore, a positive day because the car is powerful, but we’ll have to wait to see his performance during the next two days. “

Rivalry with Ferrari

The Ferrari drivers followed in third and fourth positions, while Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen have been more competitive than at the first practice session, finishing less than four-tenths of a second of the Mercedes.

“We will have to work a little bit on the car to make the most of it. It seems to tighten between Ferrari and us, so I expect that the race is also noted as the last, ” said Hamilton.

Vettel holds a lead of seven points on Hamilton in the drivers championship and Ferrari would want nothing less than a victory to his supporters to celebrate the 70 years of manufacturing. Except that he would have to roll up the sleeves by the qualifying session.

“Today, it was a day in half-tone, and I hope it will be better tomorrow [Saturday], said the German. If we can improve on some aspects of here tomorrow, then we should be the best. Mercedes is dominant here since a few years, but we need to focus on ourselves. “

A few moments after Bottas had recorded the best lap of the session, Hamilton had a better pace before the last sector.

Exceed Schumacher

Hamilton will have to improve his driving if he wants to win a fourth pole position in a row at Monza, and breaking the tie with Michael Schumacher with a 69th pole position in F1, a record.

The british driver had gone ahead of Bottas by almost a half second in the first session.

The second session was presented in ideal conditions, after the morning had been punctuated by rain showers.

The Red Bull drivers took the fifth and sixth ranks, while Max Verstappen has been the best on Daniel Ricciardo in the afternoon.

McLaren’s Honda has seen some encouraging signs while Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso have received the two following places. Esteban Ake, Force India and Felipe Massa of Williams completed the top 10.

A head-to-tail for a Stroll

The quebec driver Lance Stroll has lost control of his Williams in the chicane Ascari, forcing the temporary exit of the yellow flags. Stroll is just the 15th in the second session, after finishing 13th in the morning.

“The car behaves better than recent races, so that’s good, referred to Stroll, which has already driven on the circuit of Monza in F3 in 2015. But I missed my flying lap because of a head-to-tail. I’m just entering the turn with a little too much speed, and since it was my second lap, the rear tires were a bit fragile, so I just lost the car. He will now have to see if we can keep up this form tomorrow [Saturday], and if this is the case, I think we can do well. “

Kevin Magnussen, Haas, saw his car stop at the same place as Stroll due to a broken suspension.

For his part, Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, has been abandoned by its engine.

The two Red Bull drivers, as well as Sainz and Alonso should reap punishment on the starting grid to have made changes to the engine.

Rain is expected during qualifying on Saturday, but the forecast is more encouraging for the race on Sunday.