Italy – Free Practice 2: Rosberg Leads, Hamilton Delayed

Unlike this morning, the sun is shining above the Monza Autodrome just moments before the start of the second free practice session of the 2014 Italian Grand Prix. The heat is also present as the track reaches 40°C and the air temperature is a pleasant 25°C.

The session is underway! The first driver on track is Romain Grosjean. The French driver didn’t run in FP1, giving up his seat to Charles Pic. The Franco-Swiss is getting acquainted with his car and makes several braking errors at the chicanes, notably. Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen takes the lead before Nico Rosberg takes the advantage with a 1:27.005. At the same time, his teammate is not in his car: it is partly disassembled and does not seem ready to hit the track. “The car is on stands and we are looking for the problem,” explains the team. The Brit is nevertheless all smiles at the back of his garage, chatting with members of Mercedes.

At the front, Fernando Alonso sets the fastest time but Rosberg improves by four-thousandths, in 1:26.786. At this stage of the session, the drivers are still on hard tires (orange).

After half an hour, Rosberg leads ahead of Alonso, Button, Magnussen, and Vettel. The McLarens seem to be in good shape at the start of this Lombard weekend. The Dane is actually the first driver on medium (white) tires. The championship leader, for his part, improves his own time to 1:26.225 thanks to his mediums. Bottas closes in half a second behind. Magnussen has a slight scare going wide at the exit of Ascari.

On Button’s side, the braking before this fast chicane offers a breathtaking view of a large amount of carbon dust escaping from the front brake ducts. Meanwhile, Grosjean suffers an off at Lesmo: he returns to the track after tasting the Lombard gravel; a few moments later, the Frenchman locks his wheels at the first chicane’s braking and heavily climbs the curbs. A small misunderstanding just before the Parabolica braking between Alonso and Vettel: the former wanted to let the latter pass, who indicated with a hand gesture that he wouldn’t.

Alonso improves his time and comes back to just over three-tenths from Rosberg. Räikkönen slots in between the two men, a tenth behind the German. In the Mercedes garage, Hamilton is getting ready to climb into his seat. The W05 Hybrid No. 44 will be able to take to the track with only half an hour remaining in this session.

After one hour, Hamilton takes off as Rosberg, leading, is ahead of the Ferraris of Räikkönen and Alonso, followed by Bottas’s Williams and Button’s McLaren. Grosjean repeatedly goes wide at Lesmo and brakes poorly: the Lotus E22 seems extremely uncooperative and underwhelming, as usual.

The drivers begin the race simulation phase with long stints loaded with fuel. Hamilton immediately fits soft tires to start his session. After eight laps, he falls short by 61 thousandths of a second behind his teammate in second position. Rosberg, meanwhile, asks his engineer for driving advice: “Focus on your exits [from corners],” Tony Ross tells him. Five minutes before the end of the session, Button, stuck behind Kvyat since Ascari, tries to overtake him at the braking of the first chicane but misses and has to go straight with a very damaged front left tire.

The session concludes with the fastest time set by Nico Rosberg ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen.