The Italian Grand Prix - Practice 2 Formula 1

Welcome to Monza. The sun has broken through the clouds and it is really

hotted up. If you missed free practice one, it was Lewis Hamilton

who topped the time sheets. No big surprise there. It was a surprise to

see Jenson Button popping up into second. The cars are making their

way out. Let's join Jenny and Tom in the pit-lane. We are waiting to see

Daniel Ricciardo leave. He only did 12 laps this morning. Red Bull have

had to take his car apart, take the power unit apart to get at the ECU

works on the front brakes as well. works on the front brakes as well.

Four drivers stood out of the first practice session. Sergio Perez came

in for the last hour of it taking over from Daniel Juncadella. Good

news - Sebastian Vettel has been chumming it up with John Surtees. I

don't think he will be going out. Daniel Ricciardo is, though. Every

minute counts on this Friday free practice two session. Always a

favourite. As the cars make their way on to the Autodromo Nazionale Di

Monza, let's join our commentary team.

COMMENTARY: This is the second free practice session ahead of the

Italian Grand Prix. This is one of my favourite races of the year, this

part of the season where we come to Monza, a track of great history and

these wonderful fast straights, high straight-line speeds, Allan, is it

amongst your favourites? It is. Nowhere has got more passion for a

sport - and a sport where they have contenders at the front end. Monza

has a great history about it. As a driver, you feel that history when

you come down into the first corner. You can see the banking on the

right, looping off to the right and up towards Curva Grande. The fans

are the ones that make it. They are only here for one thing - a Ferrari

victory. The cars are out on circuit already. So, we are three minutes

into the session. Nico Hulkenberg had some changes on his car and

Kamui Kobayashi is back at the wheel of the Caterham having missed out in

Spa. We are looking at Romain Grosjean, locking up the braking

into the second chicane. The approaches here in Monza are so

critical, the braking here, with the car that is running with low

downforce, getting your braking point right is such a critical part

of the story? Certainly is. Grosjean gave up his car this morning to

Charles Pic, the test driver at Lotus. From that point of view, he's

trying to recover the one-and-a-half hours that he lost this morning. At

the second chicane, you brake very late. If you lock up, you are better

to release the brake and save the tyre and use the run-off area to

come back on. If you leave aside Frank Williams,

the longest-serving team principal is probably Christian Horner at Red

Bull - and he is only about 41. Now, celebrating 50 wins with that

success of Ricciardo, Daniel Ricciardo, at Belgium. That was the

50th win this Formula One for Red Bull and all of them under his

management. Alonso's manager as well... On board with Ricciardo.

Approaching Variante Ascari. Flick it left, then right. That was flat

out in previous years, as soon as you got on to the throttle, you are

hard and flat trying to carry all of the momentum down towards Curva

Parabolica. Down three gears and you squeeze on the throttle. This green

area on the left - Ricciardo runs on to it, keeps his left wheels on the

small drain. That's been a controversial part leading

small drain. That's been a this Grand Prix because that used to

be gravel. this Grand Prix because that used to

Drivers will use it but they are allowed to put all four wheels off

it. Once they do that, it is in a situation where they could receive

penalties. A young fan there wearing a Juventus cap. Very much enjoying

the Formula One action. Juventus one of the Italian club teams based in

Turin. Enjoying the action. Nico Rosberg, who was very much the

picture of contrition yesterday in the press conference, having been

forced to apologise for the accident with Lewis Hamilton last time out in

Spa. Rosberg, I sense, is slightly uneasy. A lot of drivers have been

backing him and saying he had nothing to apologise for. Rosberg

himself, I wonder whether it's taken a bit of momentum out of his

campaign. He doesn't have the sparkle in his eyes and I wonder

whether Hamilton can use this to try and get back at him. Underlying this

battle on track between them is a fierce psychological battle? It is a

psychological battle. In Spa the points went to Nico Rosberg, but he

said to Lee McKenzie, "I have nothing to apologise for. It wasn't

my problem. At the end" -- it wasn't my problem." Hamilton

had the corner. It was a bit clumsy on Rosberg's behalf, so therefore he

did have - he had to take the biggest portion of the blame. I

think that it was just something that was about to happen. Lewis

Hamilton has to take advantage of it. He can see for the first time

that the team were behind him and so therefore he's got to try and gain

the confidence out of it. Up until now, since the Monaco Grand Prix,

that momentum has been going with Nico Rosberg. It was interesting

because yesterday Toto Wolff, who clearly felt that his authority had

been undermined by what happened in Spa, he felt there was an agreement

between the team and the drivers not to collide with each other and that

had been ignored. He made the strongest possible threat, didn't

he, speaking to us, saying that if they can't work together and find a

level and obey our rules, we will replace them. It is as simple as

that. The team comes above any particular driver. The stewards of

the day, they felt that it was a racing incident under this new

situation of allowing the drivers to race. If it had been the beginning

of the season, it was possible Nico Rosberg would have had a penalty

underneath that. He didn't on this occasion. However, the Mercedes team

- Romain Grosjean going too quickly there, he locks up the rears - if

they cannot race together without crashing into each other...

TEAM RADIO: How is the balance? Still a bit tricky on the rear.

Daniel Ricciardo giving some feedback. He lost time this morning.

The track temperature has gone up. It was 39 degrees. Just ducked back

down to 38 degrees. To continue what we were saying about Toto Wolff? He

was saying to the guys look, Mercedes is more important than your

inter-team battle. Mercedes has to win each Grand Prix that it can win.

They were half a second a lap faster than anyone else and still they

managed to lose that. And also the previous Grand Prix as well. Daniel

Ricciardo and Red Bull picked up victories. What they want is a

Mercedes to win. After that, which one of their drivers achieves the

World Championship, that is down to the sort of scrapping on track. They

have to remember it is not all about themselves. Yes, as Magnussen puts a

couple of wheels on to that artificial grass on the outside of

the Curva Parabolica. Some straight-line speeds are creeping up

now. Nico Hulkenberg - 343 kilometres an hour. Magnussen goes

fastest. We are ten minutes into this free practice two session.

Maldonado also just finding there is not as much grip on the outside

there of that Curva Parabolica as there is elsewhere. Magnussen,

Hulkenberg, Perez, Kvyat, Ricciardo, Bianchi, Vergne - and that is the

team boss at Ferrari Marco Mattiacci. Alonso has used five

internal combustion engines. Tom Clarkson is down there. As you can

see from that graphic, Tom, we are going to start getting into theary y

where people who need to change their engine, they will start

getting into some penalties. Those penalties are complex and hard to

understand, aren't they? They are, James. Both Ferrari drivers using

brand-new power units at this race. They are absolutely clued up that

straight-line speed is crucial here. That has manifested itself during

these two practice sessions. This morning, they were back-to-back in

high and low downforce. This afternoon, Alonso and Raikkonen -

Alonso heading down the pit-lane now - are both using low downforce.

Expect them to have a fast, relative to the other runners - expect them

to be as fast as they can possibly be in a straight line. Thank you,

Tom. We saw a quick shot of Hamilton's car having a bit of work

done on it. Nico Rosberg is out on circuit, running the harder compound

of the two Pirelli choices this weekend. Because of the very high

wheel rotation speeds here, at speeds of 340 kilometres an hour,

they get a lot of heat in the shoulder of these tyres and they

have to be pretty conservative for that reason and bring the two

hardest tyres in the range, the hard and the medium. Allan is pulling a

face at me as if to say I'm not so sure about that. They are being very

conservative. That was one of the problems this morning. Ferrari were

complaining about the fact they couldn't build any tyre temperature

into the tyre and they were struggling for grip. It is one of

the things - the safety is due to the high top speeds, about 220mph, I

expect to see at the end of this straight now that Nico Rosberg is

going down, as Lewis Hamilton is clearly looking for something in

there! Those high top speeds put a lot of force into the tyre on to the

inner edge, so the construction is very stiff and that means the tyre

is very difficult to work. He is looking for something to make some

adjustments to his crash helmet. I thought he was looking for his

sweets! He has a sweet tooth. Ricciardo missing the chicane there

at turn one. That is the biggest stop of the year, that first chicane

here at Monza. You are coming from 345, 350 kilometres an hour to 70,

just over two seconds of retardation. It's a funny one. You

are approaching it and you can see the braking area coming to you for

such a long time. You are preparing yourself for it. That point of going

past the 150 and down to the 100 metre board, it passes so quickly.

At 200mph, you are travelling at 90 metres per second. It does pass so

quickly, that you have to be so spot on. You don't find out if you have

braked too late until you get to the corner and the point of no return.

You are going down through the gears to get the car stopped, you have the

hybrid energy recovery system so there's a lot of different dynamics

going on and sit very tricky. -- it is very tricky.

TEAM RADIO: Some locking on the right front. Rosberg has

TEAM RADIO: Some locking on the vibration from a flat spot on the

right front tyre. There is another big problem here in Monza. If you

have a big lock-up, as we look at the floor coming off Hamilton's car,

the mechanics going to work. Hamilton is tinkering away in the

back of the garage. That looks like more than tinkering to me.

An hour and 14 minutes remaining on the clock. Rosberg is the fastest

man around here at the moment. That is just almost a second-and-a-half

slower than Hamilton went this morning in the first free practise

session. Using the harder compound tyres for everybody. Around about 40

minutes into this session we'll see them come in and take the fuel out

and put on medium tyres and do a simulation. Those lap times will set

the fastest times of the day. Then what will happen is they will come

back in, send it out again on the same tyres to simulate the early

part of the Grand Prix. On a set of medium tyres in the opening part of

the Grand Prix, we expect this race, as was last year, probably to be a

one-stop race. So this homework they will do in this session now is

critical if you will get the strategy right W the speeds so high

here, when you come into make a pit stop, it is a long pit stop here,

but you lose so much time relative to these cars travelling quickly.

You have to make the right calls on strategy here. You to have. The

average speed, as you said, is so quickly, but it has historically

been a one-stopper. If you do have to go towards a two stop, but with

the hardest of these tyres I would expect it to be one stop for most

people. There is an opportunity if you have straight-line speed to be

able to overtake. It is about doing the work so you keep the traction.

It is the traction out of the first chicane out of the second. Rosberg,

we saw coming through now and then the stability as you come through

Curva Parabolica. Let's find out what the problem is

for Lewis Hamilton. Unfortunately the team don't know. What I can tell

you, as you can see here s the mechanics are under the car. It will

not fire, that is why he's not gone out on track. They have taken off

the floor to look at the engine to see what the problem is. As soon as

I have more, I'll come back to you. Hamilton needs a clean race weekend.

He's not had one since the Spanish Grand Prix back in May. Monaco went

wrong with the incident where Rosberg brought out the yellow flags

which ruined Hamilton's final qualifying run. Since then, he's

been on the back foot, either his own mistakes, in places like Canada

and Austria and problems on the car, like the fire he suffered in

Hungary. He's not been able to put together a really complete, clean

race weekend. So, he doesn't really need this, he wants to be out on

circuit. He'll stay calm. If this was happening tomorrow afternoon,

that would be a different matter! He was happening tomorrow afternoon,

does not want to lose this critical session. Rosberg has equalled his

time he did this morning. He's quickest of anyone in that first

sector. This looks like it will be even faster again for Nico Rosberg.

So, as much as he will get that information, it's still not as good

as getting it for yourself. Especially after Hamilton was

quickest this morning, that he would want to carry that momentum forward.

It looks like it will be a while before that car is out on track. An

hour and 11 remaining. Remember, you can get in touch with us here, we

love to hear from you. It has been a busy time for social media and

Formula One. Fascinating opinions since spa.

Spa. Sauber are yet to score a

Championship Point. Here is Massa, having changed to

Williams. The team has been the fastest through the speed traps

through most of the season. Perez is for Force India. That will

help Williams be strong here. Going back to what we were discussing

about the tyre choice, you said it is conservative by pier really to

bring the hard and the medium. When the tyres are brought out it does

not necessarily help Williams too much. They tend to go better on the

softer end of the range tyres. They do go better. These tyres work

better at higher track and air temperatures. Therefore, the hotter

it gets, the more these tyres will come into their own, as Fernando

Alonso popped up into quickest. That will be a fillip for him. It is few

tenths quicker than he managed this morning. The higher the

tenths quicker than he managed this temperatures the better it will

work. That is the same for everybody. So Alonso is fastest. A

lap from Bottas as well. He's currently at sixth. It is Alonso,

Button in second place. As I say, the real headline lap

times will be set in around half an hour from now when they run with the

medium compound tyre. As Massa hammers down the straight then and

across the start finish line at 341 kilometres per hour. Picks his

breaking point. Almost six G hits his chest. Flicks it right and then

left. Just in front of the car, just quivering as he brings it back under

control. A huge amount of talk out of this hybrid turbo power plant

that makes the car want to slide. This is an overtaking place on race

day. We have seen some pretty exciting wheel-to-wheel action.

Particularly Alonso and Vettel in recent years and ended up with one

of them on the grass on several occasions. Now through Lesmo two. On

to the straight which leads to the Ascari, named after a two-time

champion for Ferrari. The only Italian driver to win at the wheel

of a Ferrari. Builds up speed to the Parabolica

corner. This is characterised by not too many corners. It is chicanes and

the only corners worth a name is this and the other. When you have a

car underneath you, you can see, but his team-mate Valtteri Bottas is

going quickest right now. It looks like the Williams team have gone

back to their standard Friday speck, where they may get more fuel on the

Friday morning and then start to build things up through the course

of the weekend. But here is Bottas coming across. I expect him to go

faster than his team-mate and he doe. Impressively, Jenson Button is

up there again. He is. Jenson Button is currently in third. Williams this

morning announcing half-year figures. They are a listed company

on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Here is the radio.

TEAM You get to see what the gain is.

That is something they spoke about beforehand.

Sebastian Vettel actually forgot in the heat of the moment and got

reminded by his team engineer. Tom Clarkson is down outside the garage.

I am. It is far from an ideal build up for Ricciardo.

I am. It is far from an ideal build hat-trick this weekend. He did 12

laps this morning. He's only done seven this afternoon. Let 's start

by talking about the brake ducks. The team put on new ones prior to

the start of practise this morning. They have been busy filing away at

them. They have reduced less drag than the ones they were using at

SpaA. They are trying to make -- at Spa. Let's look at this front wing -

how beautiful is that! The front wing has no outlets. It is very

clean. It is beautifully clean. They tell me they have a smaller rear

wing on the car. I guess less downforce on the front to balance

the car. Ricciardo earlier this morning, he had the more

characteristic one with the little winglets and Sebastian Vettel tried

that wing we are looking at now. You need to try and get that balance. It

is a balance. It is a balance between the consistency between

front to rear, but about the ability for the front end of the car to be

precise. That is one of the keys of the Red Bull. They've had a front

end, it's always been very sharp for the driver. He can come to these

chicanes and put the front of the car in and change direction. The

front would pick up and a turn around, allowing them to get earlier

on to the throttle. Thank you very much for that. Lewis Hamilton

looking very relaxed down in the Mercedes pit garage, even though

there's a problem getting his car to fire up. Of coursely chatting to a

guest down there and seeming -- of course, chatting to a guest down

there and seeming very calm. No floor still on the Mercedes. Number

44 of Lewis Hamilton, the only driver who has not gone out and set

a time. There's the young Spanish driver who went out this morning. In

an experience-gathering exercise he managed to do 29 laps. Former

European F-3 champion. He's definitely a serious racing driver.

Just getting a chance to get a few laps in and get a bit of Formula One

experience with the Caterham team, now under new management, as they

say. Gutierrez is out on circuit. It's

not been a greater r year for him with the Sauber team. Has the best

start record though - if you take away places lost from places gained,

he's doing better than anybody else. He tends to

he's doing better than anybody else. bottom end of the grid. I suppose

you would argue it is easier for him than Rosberg or Hamilton starting

off the front row. That's a struggle statistic, to be honest, if you look

at that, whether it is the highlight of your year. It's been a bad season

for the Sauber team. They didn't have a very good beginning to 2013.

They got the car sorted out. Nico Hulkenberg wrestled it around at the

end of the year. They've not been able to achieve that through the

course of 2014. And for Gutierrez, it seems to have been just

course of 2014. And for Gutierrez, from bad to worse. Adrian Sutil and

his team-mate has managed to get more out of it since the Grand Prix

back in July. He's been more competitive. We are in the middle to

the back of the grid, as opposed to the middle to the front, where they

thought they should be. They have brought through a number of young

drivers for Ferrari over the years, including Felipe Massa. And now

Ferrari have another team that they have lined up. There is Toto Wolff,

with Lauder. They were critical of Rosberg after the collision in Spa.

Rosberg said yesterday in a press conference that Lauder had

apologised for being so strong with his wording.

When you come out of that corner, it is a tricky one. The apex of the

curve, it seems to be a little point and you've got to carry speed into

it, where there's positive camber on the road, you have to hit that apex.

Then, as soon as you get to the edge of the track, it drops off, on to

the curve and the road falls away of the track, it drops off, on to

from you. If you have any car imbalance and understeer or over

steer, then it amplifies it significantly and you see a lot of

people bouncing down the whole lent of that -- length of that. It is an

extremely tricky corner. It leads on to a big straight. And there is

another one. It will be very interesting when we

speak to Christian Horner later on, there's the 1964 world champion. The

only one to win on four and two wheels. It will be interesting to

talk to Christian Horner about the setting on this car. The car,

particularly the floor, has so much downforce. 30% of a Formula One's

car is generated by the floor. The Red Bull floor has always been good.

TEAM RADIO: We need to look at it on round two.

It's good. Have a look at that. Nico Hulkenberg, that is the corner

that Daniel Ricciardo came out as Hulkenberg started on the turn. It

is the right-left. You have low revs there. A smooth delivery because you

are in a low gear. That is one of the things that they'll try to

adapt, is that drivability, because that helps to control the wheelspin.

The wheelspin helps you control your tyre life.

Romain Grosjean keeping cool in the pit-lane. The track temperature is

40 degrees now, the air temperature is 25. The sun is out. There are a

few grey clouds around. There is a grey cloud hanging over Lewis

Hamilton at the moment. He's not been able to go out on circuit. The

car will not fire up and the team are working on it. He is trying to

look as serene as he possibly can! A curtain of Mercedes mechanics are

blocking the view as they work on a sensitive area. They were covering

up the rear wing this morning. They are trying to protect the cameras

and the still cameras that the other team also be interested in looking

-- teams will be interested in looking at as well. It is also a bit

of a game - we have got something that we don't want you to know

about! So, we have just under an hour remaining. Rosberg, from

Alonso, from Button, from Magnussen - that's the top four. The Force

India comes in to the pit-lane. A set of the harder compound tyres on.

If you look at the right front, it had a bit of - you could see it was

starting to work. This morning, they didn't look good at all, as if they

had been driving around, as opposed to being loaded into the circuit.

The Renault engine is working hard in the back of Daniel Ricciardo's

Red Bull car. Magnussen has just gone - I beg your pardon, Magnussen

is a tenth up. Ricciardo in fourth. And where is he going to end this

lap up? The winner of the last two Grand Pries, the Australian is in

such great form at the moment, he ends up 11th at the end of that run.

We saw Giedo van der Garde a few moments ago, he is with Jennie. How

is this circuit handling? Very slippery. We started with a low

downforce configuration. It was all over the place. You know, it is the

characteristic of the track, you over the place. You know, it is the

always sliding, trying to find grip. It will get better and better during

the day. Talk about Curva Parabolica, is it different as a

driver? It is a bit different. You can use more on the exit. Before,

you went through the gravel and you lost a lot of time. Now, if you go

over the white line it is not a problem. You can enter the corner a

bit quicker and you can carry more speed. Some people are saying they

are making it too easy. Is it taking the fun and the excitement out of

that corner? It is safer, that's for sure. On the other hand, the years

before, if you make a mistake there, or if you push too hard, you will go

off. Now, you lose nothing. I was watching the cars come out of that

corner in the first session. You come out differently. So do you get

a faster speed coming along the start-finish straight?

You can carry more speed, which is normal. What are Sauber doing to

turn around their fortunes this season? Any more movements? I mean,

we are not too bad, I think. This morning was quite good. We found

good configuration with the wing level. Hopefully, we can put it

together this weekend. We need a bit of luck to get the points. Also, in

Singapore, we get an upgrade on the car so, hopefully, we need some luck

and score the points as soon as possible. Thank you very much. Giedo

van der Garde, a former World Kart Champion, now with Sauber. He was

15th fastest this morning. Now, keep your comments coming. Ben

says, "Do you think Now, keep your comments coming. Ben

have done enough to keep their Now, keep your comments coming. Ben

seats?" I don't think it is necessarily have they done enough -

there is an element that McLaren have to look and will be looking at

the future. But also it depends on who else is around. I'm sure that

everybody would like to try and grab a hold of Fernando Alonso, but if

he's contracted to Ferrari, there is no chance. I would say for both of

them, it is dependent on what other driver options there are for the

future as much as what they have done this year. I personally think

they will both stay. I think there is a solidity in doing that for

2015, the first year with Honda engines coming on board, so

therefore the team need to have some continuity. They will stay. Some

medium compound tyres being fitted to the Force India, heading off down

the pit straight. Adrian Sutil and Kevin Magnussen are in the medium

compound tyres. There was a graphic a moment ago - beautiful slide by

Ricciardo on the exit of the second Lesmo bend. We saw a graphic earlier

with Magnussen on a split time. He ended up fourth fastest mentd --

fastest. TEAM RADIO: We will go to orange

echo one. Looks like we ran out at the end of that lap. Orange echo one

should help. They are talking about running out of hybrid energy, so

therefore they are adjusting the way they are recuperating the energy and

boosting the energy on to the McLaren so they use nit the most

efficient way over the course of the whole lap around here. If you can

gain two or three miles per hour on to a straight because you have got

an extra boost of hybrid, that carries all the way down the

straight so it gains you tenths. You can see the lap time on your display

just dropping like a stone and it is fantastic as a driver to watch that.

Ultimately, if you run out of that energy, you just lose the time and

that is one of the most frustrating sights to see. One of the most

exciting drivers to be in Formula One in the last 20 years was Juan

Pablo Montoya. We haven't seen him since 2006, but he is standing next

to Tom Clarkson. He is. This place has been very good to him. You won

your first Grand Prix here. You got that 160mph lap. Must be good to be

back? It is fun. I haven't been back since my last race! Was that 2006? I

came to Europe for the simulator for IndyCars. Any desire to be out there

now? No, I looked at the cars in the Williams garage and they still look

pretty sexy. The technology is amazing. I am happy where I am. Has

the sport - the same old faces around. We know each other from way

back! Do you feel the sport has moved on? It's changed with the

technology and things. Back here looks the same. It's changed -

things are bigger. People are used to working one place, working a

different place. It is fun to see all the old faces. Who have you

seen? First person yesterday was Frank. Today, I saw Ron. Was that an

interesting conversation? As always! I saw Ron at NASCAR. A lot of

mechanics at Williams. It's pretty cool. It all seems to be kicking off

at Mercedes. Excitement at Spa last time between Lewis Hamilton and Nico

Rosberg. Your thoughts on their battle? The fans need

Rosberg. Your thoughts on their need the action. They need the

racing. We are here to race. Any chance of you coming back here one

day? To watch, maybe! Good to see you. Thank you. Nico Rosberg goes

fastest with a set of medium compound tyres - 1:26.225. Valtteri

Bottas goes second - 1:26.058. Sutil gets it all wrong there.

Crossed up into the second chicane. On the earlier runs, Bottas was

losing time. On this tyre, he seems to have got it tidied up. I'm not so

sure that he is quicker in that middle sector. I think there was a

possibility of Rosberg didn't get the cleanest middle sector because

he's quickest in sector one and three. I think there is probably a

bit of tidying up to be done there. Clearly, the car has still got that

advantage, the Mercedes. The tyre difference hasn't been as much as

some would have expected. Sebastian Vettel is out there at the moment on

a set of the medium compound tyres. His best time on the harder one -

1:27.150. TEAM RADIO: Magnussen going faster

towards the end of his run. Expect a better lap.

TEAM RADIO: We are looking at 0.6 of a second advantage for the option,

roughly. He's done the maths for us. So far from the laps we have seen,

it looks like 0.6 of a second advantage medium to hard. If that is

the case, if that is carried through across the grid, that is good news

from a strategy point of view. This is probably just a one-stop race.

There is a possibility with them being that close of seeing a few

drivers starting outside the top ten on the harder compound tyre and

running a long first stint, something Sergio Perez did in 2012,

which brought him a podium. Rosberg missing the chicane there. Magnussen

really leaning on that McLaren. Rosberg, Bottas, Alonso, who has

gone out now on a set of the medium tyres, he is one of the only

front-runners who have not done a medium tyre run, Jenson Button is

also out on a set of medium tyres. It will be interesting to do the

comparison between Button and Alonso here. On the harder compound tyre -

Button has done a 1:26.762. Let's have a look at what Alonso did. It

was 1:26.7. If he carries through that advantage... It might take him

to the fastest time of the day. Here he comes. Coming down to the first

corner, you brake at 120 metres out, he locked up the rear there, had to

correct, and Alonso gets it left into that one and on to the throttle

now. You need to be clean on the throttle. A bit bumpy, Curva Grande,

you don't have to go to that right-hand apex, try to keep the

scrub out of the car. As you run down to the second chicane, again

over 200mph, but including that sort of oversteering moment at the first

chicane, he's a little off being quickest. Now Lesmo 1, trying to

roll the car in, not to go too wide on exit and then Lesmo 2, a tricky

one. You use all of that kerb. You still need to keep your right-hand

wheels on the track. Under the bridge down towards Variante Ascari,

Fernando Alonso still 0.08 off the mark. Rosberg has set the fastest

first sector. 46 minutes remaining. Down the straight comes Alonso into

the new revised Curva Parabolica. He is not a big fan of it, Alonso. He

doesn't get the wheels on to that artificial grass. He said yesterday

in a press conference, he thought that would be bad news. Not enough,

lost a little time in the final sector. He's off the benchmark of

Rosberg. Rosberg has gone into the pits. Alonso goes second, that is a

crowd-pleaser. That is not so much of a crowd-pleaser from Romain

Grosjean(!) He lost that on the entry into Lesmo 1. All that gravel

will have damaged the leading edge of the front wing and also the floor

and the gravel goes everywhere, it is a difficult thing to clean out

for the mechanics. We have got some more questions coming in. Nathan,

"What sort of speeds are they hitting this year at Monza?" We are

looking at 346 kilometres an hour. That was done by the Mercedes of

Rosberg, Bottas and Massa. Let's see if we can get an update on the Lewis

Hamilton situation. He's not yet set a lap time with 44 minutes

remaining. We are at the halfway stage in this free practice two.

Still, feverish work is going on. This is a race against time you may

be able to make out Too Wolff. They are looking at half an hour before

they can get him out. I have heard the car fire up. When I was here at

the beginning of the session it kind of whimpered. They had a hydraulic

sensor problem in the last session. The session continued, anyway. That

has been more of a problem. A hydraulics problem for Lewis

Hamilton. He is at the back of the garage looking relaxed. There's a

lot of work to be done if he's to get out at all. Toto Wolff, you

mentioned to me, his arms are crossed and I think he can feel the

frustration of it. This is not what he wanted after all the discussions

and things that were happening over the last couple of Grand Prix

weekends with the interteam rivalry and team situations. He would have

liked a clean weekend for both cars to run through. That is clearly not

happened. If he'll get out in half an hour, that will be 15 minutes of

this one-and-a-half hour session that there's potential for Lewis

Hamilton to recover some information. You can see that Wolff

has his right wrist and arm in a sling, following a cycling accident.

He broke four bones down the right-hand side of his body a month

ago. He said in many social media messages and comments to the team

over the past week when they were suggesting what would be a suitable

punishment for Nico Rosberg for having transgressed and broken the

agreement in Spa, the funnist that was received was "Send him out on a

bike ride with Toto Wolff." It was a brave thing to do. What would you do

if you were running it? Alonso was asked if he would be the ambassador

for peace between the two of them. He declined that particular job

offer. I think he's happy to stick with Ferrari. This weekend will be

one of the ones that I think will decide what his feelings are towards

his long-term future. If he feels that is a place that will deliver a

Third World championship for him, or will he look elsewhere. There is a

sense that Ferrari is on the point of making a change. There is a

strong feeling and it is growing here in Italy, among our Italian

colleagues, that change is on the wind here with the chairman of

Ferrari possibly moving on. Possible the CEO of the Fiat group, of the

last few year, coming in as part of the restructuring of that setup, now

they are merging Chrysler group. Where Mateschitz is in, whether he

takes on a general manager type role within the wider Ferrari struck

chufrmt it seems as though -- structure. It seems as though there

is change there. Alonso will take that into consideration. If he

thinks it is a change for the better, then I am sure he'll feel

more inclined to commit. If he feels it will destabilise the team, it

will make him more inclined to look around. Every driver does decide

there's a bit of mirror and hand signal communication between Vettel

and Alonso. The drivers decide what's best for them, as the team

decides on what is best for the team. But the fact of the matter is

Ferrari are nowhere near competitive enough. They have been there or

tlabts in previous years, but -- there abouts in previous years, but

only because they have been dragged to the World Championship, as the

team has been delivering. This season neither has been delivering

to the extent they need to. This is interesting, Kimi Raikkonen, faster

of anyone in section one. He was quickest of anybody into sector one

on this medium compound tyre run. And that's an interesting shot. Is

that his girlfriend? I presume it is. He was Maried to a former Miss

Finland, but I think that ended a few years ago. That is obviously the

current girlfriend of Kimi Raikkonen. It was a quick sector,

but not necessarily the fastest for top speeds. He was 200 mire, as he

-- miles per hour as he got down to the line. The fastest has been 325

kilometres. Alonso and his team-mate is back on,

kilometres. tries to get a slip stream off the

Marussia ahead of him. Kimi Raikkonen watches, I am told

that was his girlfriend and she is pregnant with Kimi Raikkonen's first

child. Can you imagine what sort of father Kimi would be. Amazing fun or

hardly ever there. I am not sure which. Certainly be... I wonder if

it will mature him a little bit. 39 minutes on the clock. Fernando

Alonso, the team-mate, gets close to the back of the Marussia there. He

gets a tow from that Marussia. Takes him to 325kms per hour. The fastest

through the speed tracks. Vettel is fifth. Magnussen, sixth.

Raikkonen, having made that small mistake on that last map is having

another go. His first sector is not as good as his best. He'll be there

or tlabts. Whether he'll -- or thereabouts.

Alonso, 1. 26.5. He does run a couple of wheels up on

the artificial grass. Drives for the line on the Ferrari and beats his

team-mate, Alonso. He beats him by a couple of a tenths

of a secondch he's only one-tenth off Rosberg. Alonso's miss tlak,

underbraking into that first chicane on his qualifying simulation run was

enough to leave the door open for Kimi Raikkonen to beat him the here.

37 minutes remaining on the clock. Very early to say if he's got the

performance. The one thing that seems to be building is that Alonso

is able to replicate his teams. He's done a 26. 5.6.5 and the next was

1,000th of a second slower. Alonso has come into the pits a.s that. He

says he's -- pits after that. He says he has more in the pockets.

Raikkonen looks to be quicker generally, I would have said n the

last couple of Grand Prixes in Spa, he was a bit more competitive. He

seemed more at ease with the Ferrari and around here as well. You know,

he's not really adapted so well to the characteristics of this Ferrari

on his return to the mark. I would have said it seems to be coming more

towards him right now. Certainly would appear that way. Keep your

comments coming. Most of the cars are recovering to the pits. Not if

you are watching a repeat, of course, on Saturday morning, because

we will not be able to monitor them. But if you are enjoying this with us

live, do send us your thoughts and questions. We have one more. From

David, "we hear Mercedes could change their driver line-up. If it

does change, what could be the line-up for 2015? " That

does change, what could be the Toto Wolff quite said, he said if

they are not driving in the Mercedes spirit, then we would consider

changing our line-up. We put them on warning. That is different from

saying it is likely in anyway, shape or form to change. I think that is

probably the answer to that one. I don't think they would have hired

Fernando Alonso. There is the feeling there between them. If they

did end up needing another driver I would think Sebastian Vettel would

be high up the wanted list from the Mercedes side. But, we are a long,

long way from that at the moment. Ross Patten. Is it a benefit to have

two number one drivers for a team? Or do you prefer number one and

number two like they did at Ferrari? What do you prefer? What would you

do if you were a team boss? It is a very tricky one. You double up your

chances if you two number ones to go all out. But it does have risks.

Every single time that that situation has arisen, then it's

always created some drama mid-season, because ultimately there

can only be sort of one big fish in that particular pod. Somebody has

got to be the bigger one of the two. And so, therefore, there's an egg go

at stake as well too. If you look at it the other way, where where you

have a clear defined one and two, that has risked as well. That --

risks at well. That is where Felipe Massa was not quite delivering and

they felt they needed to change him because ultimately he was not able

to bring in the points as much as Alonso was. It is probably worth

having a chat about what Ross would have done if he had been team prans

approximate of Mercedes this year. Do you think he would have let the

two race. He only had Jenson going for the title. Would he have chosen

a number one and number two. Had he let them race and they collided,

what do you think he would have done? Well Ross is a racer at heart.

When ever he ran this strategy he wanted to win. That is not in doubt.

His strategy of how to do it was different than to the current

Mercedes. What he would have done, is he would have shut down the doors

very, very quickly on all of the talk in the paddock and they would

have sorted everything out behind closed doors. This is a very

different way of doing things in the way that Toto Wolff and the current

board are doing. It is more open and free discussion. We like it, you

know everything that is going on. The other side of it, sometimes

things do boil a little bit over. There is a different way of doing

things. There's no right or wrong way. There is a different way. If

you win the World Championship, you win the World Championship, however

you do it. Meanwhile, we saw there Lewis Hamilton butting his crash

helmet on and -- putting his crash helmet on and climbing into the

cockpit. Good news. 35 minutes left to go of this session, just under

and Lewis Hamilton just climbed into the cockpit of his car. The car is

fixed now. It was an electronic fault that was giving the sensors

problems. So they could not fire the car up. They have since managed to

fire it up. Lewis Hamilton, if he will win this championship, he'll

have to do it the hard way. 29 points at the deficit against his

team-mate. Hopefully he'll get some meaningful time under his belt. He

has half an hour to get something done. He'll be relying, I would

imagine, on the data from his team-mate, Rosberg. That is what

Rosberg is doing at the moment. Here is his radio.

Great balance. That is Tony Ross his race engineer. Here comes Rosberg

then, across the line at 346km per hour and heading into the first

chicane. A big braking effect on that car and we have seen already a

few drivers making mistake. There'll be pressure tomorrow on qualifying,

particularly in the final runs to get it right and not do this, which

is the lock-up, where the front tyre becomes like a 50 p rather than a

nice perfect circle and you get the most savage vibration, I would

imagine if you have a big flat spot around Monza, given the high wheel

speeds. You have low downforce and it is bumpy into the braking areas,

so you have the high chance of lockups. If you get one, then the

vibration will start when you get halfway down, when you get above a

certain speed, probably 170 miles per hour, then you have another sort

of 300-400 metres of that vibration increasing as you get up to top

speed. Delighted to say that Christian Horner is joining us.

We've had the qualifying simulations, Christian, and your

drivers are sixth and ninth. What can you say to us about that? The

interesting thing is how close it is though. If you look at Sebastian's

time on a 26/p. It moves him -- 26/7. It moves him up to third. It

is tight and about getting that perfect lap. Made a mistake on

Parabolica on his quick run. He's making up for lost time. It is Alan

here. Do you expect to be further up than you already are? Do you think

you'll be pretty competitive now? Our race pace is better than our

short-run pace F we can qualify. If we can sneak a car on the second

run, that will be an amazing result and hopefully we can race well from

there. Obviously the last time out in Spa, another win for Daniel

Ricciardo and another win for the Red Bull team and for yourself as

team principal, that makes the magic 50. Quite an achievement in the time

you have run the team. How did you feel? What was the celebration like

after that? It was unexpected. It was a fantastic race to win. .

It was an amazing day and a great performance by Daniel, so something

It was an amazing day and a great all the team are tremendously proud

of. You are getting towards the area

where you have used up all your engines. Presumably, in your

planning meetings in Milton Keynes, you have talked through all the

different possibilities in terms of penalties. How do you see the

remaining few races - how do you think they will affect the races and

the Championship, not just for you, but for other teams as well? We will

have to take a penalty at some point between now and the end of the year.

There is a lot of debate as to when that should be and that depends on

engines available. I can only imagine that other teams must be in

a similar situation. Sebastian has had more reliability issues than

most. I would think that it is probably, this last third of the

Championship will start to become reliability-critical. One final

question going back to what you said at the beginning. It is quite close.

We haven't seen what Rosberg and Hamilton has been able to do. It

looks like he is out there now. What is your outlook for this

Championship, for this weekend? To try and get yourself on the front

couple of rows and see if you can pick up the pieces? You want to be

in a grandstand position for turn one. No, we have got to get as far

up the grid as we can. It is not that easy to overtake around here

because everybody is running similar top speeds. We have had to achieve

more wing out of the car to achieve that. We can see our race pace is

better. If we can get higher up the grid, maybe we can get put the

Mercedes under pressure. Thanks for talking to us. Christian Horner, the

team principal of Red Bull Racing. So, while Christian gets back to the

day job, Lewis Hamilton is out and on a lap. His first sector - 28.113

is not competitive, Allan. He is still on the harder compound tyre at

the moment. That is why. When he switches as one imagines he will, we

will get a sense of where his pace is. He is in seventh gear at the

moment running down to Variante Ascari. He flicks the car in. Back

out on to the throttle. Talk about the gearboxes, new rules this year,

much more restrictive. This is one race where you kind of, you would be

tempted to run a nice, long eighth gear? Well, I was looking at Lewis

Hamilton and hopefully we will go on board later on, whether they do use

eighth gear. Coming up into Variante Ascari, he was sitting on seventh,

so it was right at the end of the rev range of seventh gear. We

switched away from it. It will be - it is one of the points - how do you

play this game? It is not just about one race and where do you put your

priorities? Mercedes - Hamilton is going very slowly on the

priorities? Mercedes - Hamilton is side. He seems to have picked up a

little bit. Lewis Hamilton dropped back as he came out of the first

chicane. Coming back up to speed. Hopefully, that is not another

problem for him. There's quite a bit of traffic in front of him on the

racetrack that he is catching, so that may have contributed to it. We

will keep an eye on Lewis Hamilton, who is currently 12th fastest after

going out very late in this session, having had a problem with getting

the car to start in the pit-lane. He's lost an hour of practice

running. It is Rosberg, from Raikkonen, from Alonso, the top

three. 25 minutes remaining on the clock. Valtteri Bottas is fourth for

Williams. Then it is Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel is sixth, as Romain

Grosjean has ANOTHER look at the gravel on the outside of the Lesmo

bends. He was a regular on the podium towards the end of last year,

his career had been completely revived and it's gone backwards this

year for him? Yeah, Romain Grosjean is trying to rag anything out of it.

That was Lesmo 2 that he got it all crossed up again. The car looked

like a handful in Pastor Maldonado's hands. Every bump seems to be

amplified and the car hasn't ridden the bumps very well at all all

season. It is amazing how far off they are considering they were a

race-winning team in the last couple of years. Raikkonen winning the

first Grand Prix of last season and now look at where Lotus are. Not a

pretty picture at all. 24 minutes remaining on the clock. Hamilton is

a little faster this time in sector one, he is three-tenths of a second

slower than the benchmark sector one time set by Kimi Raikkonen. So,

Hamilton will set his. TEAM RADIO: Relative to Nico's prime

- half a tenth faster in the middle. He is a bit slower than was Rosberg

on the prime tyre. Hamilton is still running around on the medium, on the

harder compound tyre. He's not gone to the faster tyre yet. It is very

close. Alonso in third place on a 1: 26.565 and then Vettel is down on

1:26.762. It is very, very close indeed.

Really interesting gaggle of cars there behind the front-runners. Will

Hamilton do a benchmark time? He's gone into the pits. We will find out

whether the thing that slowed him down on the way out of that first

chicane was a problem, or whether he made a decision to back off because

of the traffic. Maldonado misses the second chicane. And Grosjean is into

the first chicane where he locked up the right front and had to go

through the run-off area there, bouncing over those sleeping

policemen. Where the car is unstable and inconsistent, it is tempting to

keep pushing it into the corner, but the chances of mistakes are

significantly higher. So, you are better to probably brake a few

metres earlier and be consistent and then try and build it from there.

Ultimately, as I said, it is very frustrating and your natural habitat

is to attack into the corner, but the Lotus isn't doing it. Look at

those lap times on the current stint for Kevin Magnussen. All the laps

within 1:30 range. A bit like target shooting, if you can get all the

holes within a close range of each other, that is considered to be good

shooting. It is very much the same with driving an F1 car on a long-run

simulation. Looking at it, the first feeling was

that that was probably a good run in terms of consistency, but it is not

good enough in terms of. The Red Bulls will be quicker than that in

terms of pure pace and also the Williams. However, they are there or

thereabouts as Lewis Hamilton is weaving to try to give some

much-needed temperature into those medium tyres. These two laps are the

ones that I am interested in. I wonder whether he did his best time

on the harder compound tyre. Let's see what kind of improvement Lewis

Hamilton can make then as the DRS snaps shut. Woah! He's gone a bit

deep into that first chicane. You could see the back of the car

stepping out. He's lost a bit of time, as did Fernando Alonso in a

similar situation. Not a great start time, as did Fernando Alonso in a

for Hamilton. It wasn't. It is a bit too much on the attack and it looks

like he is not necessarily pushing it on this one, he is looking to

build-up the temperature a bit more. It is possible the tyres weren't

just ideally up to temperature as he comes down here about 218mph, again

that right front lock up and having to correct as the rear comes round.

It looks as though he hasn't damaged the right front tyre. He released

and unlocked the right front wheel as soon as he realised he had a

problem. He wanted to save the tyre. Niki Lauda down there is watching on

and Hamilton has made a number of mistakes in crucial moments in

qualifying this year. He doesn't want another one of those. He wants

a clean day tomorrow here at Monza and try and qualify at the front of

the grid to give himself a platform to challenge for the win on a track

where he's always gone well in the past. Rosberg is on the circuit. His

lap time is pretty quick. Seven-tenths of a second faster

lap time is pretty quick. the McLaren of Kevin Magnussen. They

have trimmed out the rear wing this morning, the Mercedes team. It's a

cleaner and fresher run for the air across the rear wing, taking a bit

of drag out of the car. Apart from some inconsistencies there, laps in

the 1:31s, generally you are looking at a second a lap faster, the

Mercedes, compared to the McLaren. Once again, it seems the Mercedes is

the team to beat. McLaren looked quite good this morning as Rosberg

backs off on this lap on the way down to the Curva Parabolica. How is

Hamilton doing? This is more like it. His first sector has been good.

He's coming through the second Lesmo bend. He is on it. He has a car, he

has two cars in front of him. One is a Caterham and one is a Toro Rosso.

He is up. Good middle sector. Rosberg's radio.

TEAM RADIO: Try holding fifth through the Lesmos. Hamilton taking

a tow from Marcus Ericsson. He sweeps out to go round him and a bit

of correction on the wheel, but it is all fairly clean. Not quite

enough, he misses out, the middle sector was great. A bit of lost time

in the final sector, a bit of a correction into the Curva

Parabolica, I felt, whether that cost him much, I don't know. I think

it was the Variante Ascari with the Caterham ahead of him that took a

bit of air off the front when he was changing from the right to the left

and that compromised his exit there. It's also another thing - it is the

visual aspect of it. As you come into the braking - Hamilton is on

the pace. Now, we have to look to see how he can do on a long-run

pace. It is close at the front. There is a gap to Raikkonen of a

tenth of a second, or just under, and then you have Alonso, Bottas,

Button and Vettel all separated by two-tenths of a second. If we

replicate this tomorrow in qualifying, it will be thrilling. It

be. Ricciardo - when we saw Rosberg with the 1:31 - you get laps with

two seconds off. It's been a characteristic through the course of

this season and that will be lap five for Daniel Ricciardo, a 1: 34

and bang, it comes down to 1: 29.837.

In fact, we are looking at Ricciardo's long-run pace, which is

OK. Vettel is the one to keep an eye on. He did a 29.6 on lap. He seems

to be on the same sort of long-run pace as Nico Rosberg and so too

Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari. We need to keep an eye on him as well.

He is lapping 1:29. We don't know the fuel loads, of course. Mercedes

has single-lap pace. But Raikkonen is only just over a tenth slower

than Hamilton. It is pretty close. Hamilton now on a longer run.

TEAM RADIO: Losing out, braking turn one is the issue.

TEAM RADIO: Focus on exits. Focussing on exits for Nico Rosberg,

as Lewis Hamilton gets caught behind the Toro Rosso. For Lewis

as Lewis Hamilton gets caught behind it was into turn one, but Hamilton

was on a very quick lap through there and he had a nice run, but

that has all gone. Let me put a cat amongst the pigeons. Valtteri Bottas

has done a 28.938. That is significantly quicker in the long

run than anybody else. I don't think we can discount the Williams, even

though Bottas is down in fifth in the overall top speeds. This is

Bottas. That 28.938 is a stunning time. He followed it up with a

29.251. So, that is another fast time as well. He will do another

one, the front wing is just bobbling around a little bit.

half of this year. There are reasons for that. But the back story is they

are investing in success. They want to win again thand are going for it.

Look at -- and they are going for it. Look at that! They have brought

in some new faces and they have got the most out, and this guy here,

Pete, who is one of the team management figures. Came across from

McLaren. A New Zealander, who has put some discipline into crew there

at Williams and got everything working well. Here is Vettels a long

run then. Not bad -- here is Vettel's long run then. Not bad.

After it has done an lap and then they go and make the run. Not

looking too bad for Red Bull, for Ferrari or Williams. It is getting

exciting. It is very, very close at the front of the qualifying. It

could throw things up as well, by people who are probably faster, as

Vettel gets crossed up as he goes right-to-left. That is not the place

you want to put in opposite lock. In long-run pace and there could be a

few little surprises. long-run pace and there could be a

are the ones to watch right now. What Bottas has done in previous

races and what he's done now in the long run. It is

races and what he's done now in the weekend, as we can see

races and what he's done now in the getting a tow from one of the

Saubers on the way down to turn one. They are starting to explore that.

Hamilton was doing it a minute ago. We have seen Ferrari, in previous

years, working as a team. You have more chance of being struck by

lightning than see Raikkonen do that tomorrow. Do you think it was

working as a team or for Alonso? It was Alonso was the one who would

benefit out of Felipe Massa drafting him out the straights. It has been

something that historically in the downer form las he did around here

because it had the benefit. I have never found anything more than a

confusion to the rest of the actual session. There was so much talking

about it in debriefing meetings. Alonso got frustrated about it. I

will be interested to see if they start to practise

will be interested to see if they morning. Asking Kimi

will be interested to see if they you draft me so I can follow you. It

It got plenty of coverage. The 12 minutes remaining in this free

practise 2 session, ahead of Sunday's Italian Grand Prix from

Monza. A popular destination. It is under threat, the commercial boss of

Formula One said they need to come up with a better financial package

from Monza f they will main the Italian Grand Prix on their place.

They are keen to have the race elsewhere, in Florence. It is

beautifully situated. It would be very different and not quite the

same as being at this historic venue, Monza, which has been part of

the spine of Formula One for decades and decades.

Rosberg, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Alonso, Bottas, Button - is your top

six. There is the young Russian, in the Toro Rosso. That is pretty good

consistency. He's on a similar pace of Kevin Magnussen, looking at that

run, very consistent laps in the one minute 30 range. He's the benchmark.

Just looking at what he as 19 has been able to do, he has now turned

20. As we look at Gutierrez, some smoke from his brake disks. What

he's been able to do as a younger and -- youngest and get on top of

these cars and master them and no problems. Fiat did race in the

Formula Three as well as the GP 3. He won the overall title. In

European Formula Three. We hear Ricciardo. We are getting some rear

locking. It means the rear brakes are locking. Therefore you push

distribution further towards the front. That is just at the first

part of the braking, where you put in about 125 kilograms of force on

the pedal. That F-3 is the come pionship racing

this current year. If you look at result by result, therefore I think

that was a big part of the reason that Toro Rosso, Red Bull, felt they

could take a risk on someone who is just still 16 years old. And doing a

better job is a French driver, who is one of the gravity drivers,

managed by the team principal at McLaren. I understand Mercedeses are

about to or have -- Mercedes have are about to sign him up. They

missed out in the auction for Max. They could not offer him a race for

2015, where Toro Rosso could. They have signed up a very, very

promising young driver and we will keep an eye on progress there.

Nine minutes to go and Lewis Hamilton is not happy. He's been

complaining about traffic. Before he goes out for his final run, they've

had a front wing off. It's not responding as he wanted. There is:

It seems he less than happy at the minute. It has not been a

trouble-free session for Lewis Hamilton. Of course late going out

after a problem getting the car to fire up. He has only done ten laps

in comparison to his team-mate, Nico Rosberg, who has done 35. And the

man who has done the most so far in this session, is Sergio Perez, who

has done 36. Hamilton will of course have access to the data that's been

gathered by Rosberg, who is doing long runs at the moment on the

medium compound tyre. They have not got a lot of data on the harder

compound tyre in terms of long runs. If we look at the medium tyre, it

whats done 24 laps for Nico Rosberg right now. And the same with

Valtteri Bottas, who has done 21 laps and Bottas is just banged in a

29-lap time from there. I don't think there's a problem with the

medium tyre going off. There's no problem with the hard tyre.

Absolutely. You want to know at what pace it runs at. That is the crucial

thing. You run the medium so long as you can and put the hard on when you

have to. It is interesting for Lewis Hamilton

to be that close after such a truncated session. He's certainly

competitive, as we were hear from Tom. So, tomorrow is going to be

really, really interesting. There is quite a sparse crowd here today at

Monza. We don't generally get huge crowds on Fridays at a lot of venues

around the world. We can say Silverstone and, obviously Austria

was a fantastic crowd. Australia and Canada, they tend to do well. It is

a struggle here. Ticket sales are 30% down this year. Obviously Italy

emerge from afy man shalling crisis -- from a financial crisis, as is

most of Europe. The ticket prices are high here. It will be

interesting to see how many turn up here. We expect them to be down on

the 2013 figure, which is a shame. When it is in full voice, it is

magic. It takes for Ferrari to be competitive for that to happen,

doesn't it? It does. If they are competitive, then they will come out

in droves. If they are not, then they will walk away after the first

lap. Remember when Ferrari went out one year here and the crowd seemed

to get up and disappear off the grand stands. They had no --

Grandstands, they had no interest. These days the ticket would cost you

over ?200, you probably wouldn't walk away. Go and do something else.

I take your point. Sit and shrug your shoulders and be unhappy!

Absolutely right! Jenson Button struggling to get past

the car in front of him, which is, I think one of the Toro Rossos.

Toro Rosso is moving around a bit. It has terrific straight-line speed.

Watch this! This is an interesting case study for Sunday, how hard it

is to overtake. Christian Horner said to us earlier today that it is

not the easiest place to overtake. This is a graphic illustration. Even

though Toro Rosso are running... And look, cannot get past him even with

the DRS. The Toro Rosso has generally been quick. This will take

a big out-braking. Oh, carry on Jenson. He couldn't get it stopped

for the zigzag. He had to drive, locked up tyre and got vibration

from it. Here he comes. Last of the late brakers, Jenson Button.

He had a feeling he would do that and that he is what he did. A good

reading of car language. Jenson Button has spotted that. OK, there

is only four minutes to go, but frustration that he had been stuck

one lap behind a car that was slower than his Larne. With the lack of --

of his McLaren. With a lack of speed, there was not much he could

do about it. He did not have enough grip and stability to overtake him

either. Surprising from Jenson Button. It highlights the

frustration that drivers feel if they cannot get past another driver.

In terms of how they grip, definitely something to look at.

Yes, Jenson, you definitely something to look at.

grip. When you pulled out of the slipstream of Kvyat. Travelling at

250 miles per hour at that point. If you are a split second late on the

brakes then you've done a heck of a distance, as well as not having the

grip to stop the car. Lewis Hamilton is back out on circuit. His first

second is second slowest at the benchmark. He's carrying more fuel

at this point. Still using the medium compound tyre. Nico Rosberg

has come into the pits and back out on the hard tyre. You were saying

about wanting to understand what the difference is between the medium

tyre. Rosberg has done his long run and it was a long run, about 22-23

laps, ultimately on those medium tyres. Now he's got the hard tyre to

see what the offset is like. They are doing back-to-back comparisons.

Rosberg on the hard. They have two-and-a-half minutes remaining on

the clock. The data will be limited on the harder tyre. It is better

than nothing. We know it will be durable enough This is very much

looking like a one-stop race for Sunday. We know the

looking like a one-stop race for tyre will good for up to 23, 24

laps. That should not be too much of a drama to make the Grand Prix, the

53 laps of this Grand Prix with only one stop.

It will be a one-stopper by the looks of things. Also if you look at

how it was so difficult for Jenson Button to overtake as well, it

suggests that you need to be on circuit, you can be coming from

behind. Has a little look at a Rosberg moment. A right lock-up and

doing what was done a minute ago. If you do that in a race and gain a

position you have to give that position back. I think we'll see

some of that on Sunday. There's been a bit of it throughout this

championship this year. There's no reason why it should change.

Particularly when you miss a braking point, which is easy to do, with the

low force set up on these cars, then it is obviously, in a race

situation, if you gain from it, you have to give the place back. Talking

situation, if you gain from it, you about the low downforce, Monza is

situation, if you gain from it, you out liar in the championship. The

only place they have to have a low down package. The team will devote

about two weeks to this. It used to be more in the days when Hockenheim

had more. Put more effort and resource into

it. Nevertheless, to build a Monza specification kit, I am told by

friends and contacts who are engineers, you need to bring along

five front wings and four rear wings. Each one costs ?30,000 and

takes a few hundred man hours to build. You are looking at ?300,000

just for the front and rear wings. Here is Ricciardo's radio. We can

see some issues. We are working on it. On the lap earlier as well.

Should clear for the next lap. It should clear, based on previous

experience. It sounds like it is related to the power plant which has

not been ideal and it needs to re-set itself, maybe passing the

beacon, which is on the start and finish. And that is a reset for the

car. It tells it where it is on the circuit from then on. Sebastian

Vettel is the first personvy seen who has gone off the -- person I

have seen who has gone off the Parabolica. He cannot get back in.

It will be interesting to see if he had any timing at all. I doubt it.

Coming back to Ricciardo, there is a chance it needed a reset, that is

why it would be OK on the next lap. Rosberg, from Hamilton, from

Raikkonen, from Alonso, is the top four. That will cheer the Italian

fans a little bit. Mercedes are not out of touch because Raikkonen is

less than a tenth of a second, half a tenth in fact, behind Lewis

Hamilton, so some encouragement for the Ferrari team. A nice bit of tape

on the lock-up of Jenson Button that we saw earlier. The session is over.

It's been an interesting session, not from Lewis Hamilton's

perspective because he lost most of it with getting the car to fire up

and he lost an hour, basically, Allan, which he has recovered from

OK. He's done 16 laps. He will be reliant on the data from Rosberg?

The problem that he has is that he's not got the feel for that medium

tyre over the long run, how he needs to adapt his driving style so coming

into the race on Sunday, he will be learning that as he goes along,

whereas Nico Rosberg will have that in his pocket. It is not necessarily

the tyre pressures, as you see Lewis Hamilton locking up and aborting the

chicane at turn one, it is not tyre pressures, or the car set-up, it is

the driver feel and the sensitivity that he has to have on the brakes

and in the throttle. They aren't on top completely of the reliability

side of things, Mercedes? It shows you that that is going to still play

a factor, as it is for? Yes, it is the first year of a completely new

format and the Mercedes is quick but it does have its issues. However, I

have to say it is quick in the short runs, I don't think they are the

quickest in the long runs, that is down to Williams. You have Williams

quick on the long runs, Ferrari look pretty good, Red Bull, too. What are

your thoughts? Williams, quickest in the long runs, Mercedes are second

quickest. They have more in their pockets. Red Bull and Ferrari are

equal. Kimi Raikkonen is a bit stronger. Then you have McLaren. The

problem for McLaren is, if they have a lack of grip and locking-up

issues, that will be hard work. Rosberg edging his team-mate

Hamilton on the weekend after they recovered from their differences at

the Belgium Grand Prix and put a sticking plaster over them. How long

will that stick? We will find out. Raikkonen edges out Alonso, but

Williams, they look very much like the danger men this weekend for the

Italian Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton loses over an hour of

that practice session. He was fastest this morning and second this

afternoon to his team-mate and that battle continues. It looks like

Williams and Red Bull have some decent race pace around here and so

too the Ferraris. The pressure in the building behind me is incredibly

intense. There are rumours of changes at the top of Ferrari. You

can find out more on Inside F1 with me tonight. We have a packed day of

live action for you tomorrow. From Monza, thank you for your

company. Bye-bye.