Italian Grand Prix 2015 - Practice 2 Analysis. Front runners close the gap to Mercedes

Todays 2nd practice session at the 2015 Italian Grand Prix was again dominated by both Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg with the Brit beating his team mate by 2 hundredths of a second to P1. It was again a relatively quiet session with no red flags with the only real excitement coming from a few people who went through the gravel at the Ascari Chicane.

Sebastian Vettel again finished in third for the Scuderia but he was 7 tenths off Lewis Hamilton's time. In a post session interview Vettel told the media: "We can and we have to improve for tomorrow (Saturday)". Ferrari will be under huge pressure from the Italian public at there home Grand Prix this weekend and will be expected to close the gap to Mercedes. The other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen finished in 6th and again behind two very competitive Force India's.

Speaking of Force India it was again another strong session from them which proves that they have some pure pace in there car. This time there drivers switched with Hulkenberg following home Perez in 4th and 5th. The team is in a very good position to gain some strong points on Sunday and they have proved they have the quickest car in a straight line which ultimately means they won't be easy to overtake in the race. Williams and Ferrari will definitely be worried about the threat they pose.

Force India's Nico Hulkenberg is looking very good for strong points.

Lotus had a better session this time around and Romain "The Superman" Grosjean led home Pastor Maldonado in 7th and 8th. This was by far a better performance from the team than FP1. There main competitors this weekend will be Force India due to the 1 point gap they have in the constructors championship, Lotus do need to find more pace to be at Force India's level.

Williams had another typical Williams session as they again opted not to show there true pace in 9th and 10th. This time Valterri Bottas led Felipe Massa with a gap of just over 2 tenths.

Williams Valterri Bottas goes through Turn 11 of Parabolica.

Sauber had a positive session as Felipe Nasr finished 11th and Ericsson 12th, perhaps putting Sauber in with a chance for some points on Sunday.

It was a very difficult day for the Renault powered teams of Red Bull and Toro Rosso as they struggled to find pace and grip. Max Verstappen provided a heart in your mouth moment when he went through the gravel at the Ascari Chicane and came to a stop just centimeters from the barrier which would have ended his session. The Red Bull's had a really bad day in the office with Daniel Ricciardo finishing in 12th and Dany Kvyat in 20th place. Ricciardo missed a good chunk of running with a software problem that was affecting his gearbox which if damaged would promote a 5 place grid drop. Toro Rosso weren't much better with 13th and 14th, Max Verstappen getting the edge over Carlos Sainz.

Daniel Ricciardo lost valuable time with a software problem affecting the gearbox.

It was another bad day for McLaren with only 3 laps of running for Jenson Button down in 19th place. Fernando Alonso had a trouble free session in 16th with 31 laps of running under his belt.
A really good day for Manor Marussia saw Will Stevens lead Roberto Merhi home in 17th and 18th place.

Overall the strong competitors heading into Practice 3 and Qualifying are definitely Force India after finishing both Friday sessions in 4th and 5th. Can they realistically mount a fight against Vettel for the 3rd position on the grid and on Sunday? Can Lotus find more pace and repeat the great race pace they had in Spa? and can Red Bull realistically even be in the Top 10 of the grid (not counting penalties)?

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