Italian F1 Grand Prix 2016 Qualifying: Results, Times from Friday's Practice

Mercedes continued to dominate at the Italian Grand Prix on Friday, with Lewis Hamilton finishing ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg in second practice.

Hamilton posted a time of one minute, 22.801 seconds in his qualifying simulation to pip Rosberg in the afternoon runs. Sebastian Vettel gave the Italian fans something to cheer, coming home third for Ferrari.

The two Silver Arrows were comfortably quickest in the morning Monza, with Rosberg snatching top spot with a time of 1:22.959. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was the third-quickest in FP1.

Here’s a look at the standings following the two practice sessions and a recap of how the action panned out in Italy.

FP2 Recap

The Formula One Twitter feed provided the standings from the afternoon session, as Mercedes preserved their stranglehold at Monza:

First practice painted an ominous picture for the rest of the field on Friday morning, with the Mercedes drivers comfortably ahead of the chasers. It’s a trend that continued in FP2, with Hamilton and Rosberg again standing out as the dominant forces.

Encouragingly for the Italian fans, Ferrari are set to be their closest contenders, and they did at least chop down the gap to the Silver Arrows in second practice.

After Raikkonen was third-fastest in the morning, the afternoon saw Vettel flex his muscles around this iconic circuit. As we can see here, via F1, the German had time to give his thanks to the assembled mass of Ferrari fans too:

He also posted an impressive time to usurp his team-mate and temporarily split the Mercedes pairing.

In what was an otherwise incident-free session, Manor’s Esteban Ocon, who made his full F1 debut at Spa last weekend, suffered a mechanical problem, grinding to a halt. As this snap from F1 shows, he didn’t stop in the most ideal of places, triggering a virtual safety car for the drivers:

The main battle at the top was always going to be between Hamilton and Rosberg, though. And having just come up short in the morning, it was the former who bagged the temporary bragging rights in the afternoon.

Hamilton showed encouraging pace for Saturday’s qualifying with a fine lap and is undoubtedly delighted to have an edge on his world championship rival.

After the teams had finished their qualifying simulation sessions, the drivers moved to their long runs in the final stages of FP2. As noted by the Pirelli Motorsport Twitter feed, the super soft compound looks set to play a more longstanding role in matters this weekend than they did in Belgium:

Even so, by the end of the session, Vettel was complaining about losing grip on the soft compound. “I'm really struggling with the rears,” said the German 15 laps into his stint, per BBC Sport. “In slow speed there is no traction."

While Ferrari evidently have pace around this circuit, the Red Bull cars have shown a greater ability to look after tyres on the longer stints and more efficient speed endurance on race days throughout the season. Getting that balance right will be vital if the tifosi are to see one of their drivers on the podium on Sunday.

FP1 Recap

The Formula One Twitter feed provided us with the final standings from Friday morning, with the Mercedes duo dominant:

It’s always imperative for Ferrari to put in a good showing in front of the tifosi at Monza, so perhaps it was little surprise to see Vettel and Raikkonen out early trying to set the pace.

The former found some very decent speed in the morning, getting closest to the Mercedes pair initially with a sharp lap. Raikkonen was able to thrust his way into the mix later on, hooking things up superbly to move into third.

Charles Coates/Getty Images

There was a lot of focus on the rest of the grid, though, especially the Red Bull of Max Verstappen after another eventful grand prix for him in Belgium last time out. Instead of showing his full hand here, the youngster decided to test out the halo device early in the stint, per the Red Bull Twitter feed:

Eventually he moved up into eighth position, although more will be expected of the Dutchman and his Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who finished the session in 10th, later in the weekend.

Williams’ Felipe Massa was another the crowd wanted to see. The Brazilian announced he will retire from the sport at the end of the season on Thursday and is a popular figure at Monza due to his Ferrari past.

Dan Istitene/Getty Images

Nevertheless, it was an FP1 to forget for the veteran. As noted by the F1 Twitter feed, it took him a while to get out of the garage on Friday due to mechanical issues and he could only muster 14th spot:

Mercedes were the stars of the session once again, though. Rosberg and Hamilton were separated by just 0.008 seconds after their first runs, although the former, after using the soft tyre, was able to post a 1:22.959 and finish top of the standings.

While pushing to try to usurp Rosberg later on, Hamilton took a trip off the circuit after locking up. However, the two world championship contenders will be content with a decent beginning to the weekend.