MONZA, Italy: Mercedes dominated Italian Grand Prix practice on Friday with Valtteri Bottas pipping team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the fastest lap of the day, with Ferrari’s Formula One leader Sebastian Vettel best of the rest.
Hamilton was quickest in a cloudy morning session, with a lap of one minute 21.537 seconds and Bottas coming second, but the tables were turned in the afternoon.
The Finn pulled out a 1:21.406 while Hamilton — who will oust Vettel from the championship lead he has held all season if he wins the last European race of the year on Sunday — was 0.056 slower.
Vettel, seven points clear of his British rival, was third in both sessions with the gap closing in the afternoon to just 0.140. He had been more than a second slower in the opening 90 minutes at Ferrari’s home track.
Ferrari Kimi Raikkonen was fourth fastest in practice one and two.
The Ferrari fans will take heart that Mercedes also looked strong in Belgian Grand Prix practice at Spa last weekend. Ferrari closed the gap, with Vettel on Hamilton’s tail throughout the race.
“I think going into this weekend we need to be fair and say that the track layout suits Mercedes, but the performance that we showed last week gives us hope,” Vettel had told reporters on Thursday.
The Red Bull pairing of Australian Daniel Ricciardo and Dutch teenager Max Verstappen followed in fifth and sixth places, but both face grid penalties after Saturday’s qualifying because of power unit changes.
Verstappen will have a drop of 15 positions while Ricciardo, who finished third in Belgium last weekend, has a 20 place penalty.
In a surprising move up for struggling McLaren, whose Honda engine has been short on both performance and reliability, Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne was seventh quickest and Fernando Alonso eight. Alonso also has a 35-place grid penalty, however.
— Reuters
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