Italian GP 2011

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

Practice 2 Report - Vettel quickest in second Monza session

Sebastian Vettel, Italian GP 2011
© The Cahier Archive

Sebastian Vettel (1:24.010) topped the second session of free practice at Monza with a lap that was a couple of tenths slower than Lewis Hamilton's morning best for McLaren but with much higher ambient/track temperatures.

Hamilton (1:24.046) was just three hundredths slower but Red Bull's long run pace was impressively strong too, suggesting that they might have up to half a second in hand over McLaren.

As suspected, Mercedes looked closer to the front, in terms of one-lap pace at any rate, with Michael Schumacher third quickest (1:24.347), a couple of hundredths faster than Felipe Massa's Ferrari (1:24.366).

The Brazilian lapped six hundredths quicker than last year's Monza winner Fernando Alonso (1:24.433), who was three hundredths quicker than Mark Webber's Red Bull (1:24.468).

Jenson Button was seventh quickest (1:24.508), ahead of Sauber twins Sergio Perez (1:25.097) and Kamui Kobayashi (1:25.182).

Bruno Senna (1:25.325) again impressed as he completed the top 10, marginally quicker than Renault team mate Vitaly Petrov (1:25.450).

Sebastian Buemi crashed out early in the session at Parabolica, but was uninjured.