Valtteri Bottas led a Mercedes one-two in the second practice session for the Italian Grand Prix, but Ferrari closed the gap at the top of the standings.

After Lewis Hamilton topped FP1 by more than a second from third-placed Sebastian Vettel, it was Bottas who hit the front in the afternoon session at Monza, posting a 1m21.406s. Hamilton lost time in the final sector and ended up 0.056s adrift of his teammate as Mercedes finished Friday with one-two results in both sessions.

Despite the final positions, there was encouragement for the large Ferrari contingent in the grandstands as Vettel closed the 1.1s gap from the morning to just 0.140s on the low fuel runs in the afternoon. Kimi Raikkonen similarly reduced the deficit to Mercedes by setting the fourth fastest time, 0.398s slower than his countryman Bottas.

Red Bull remained the third-quickest team but could not show the same improvement as Ferrari, with Max Verstappen in fifth just over a second off the pace, and Daniel Ricciardo 0.3s further back. Somewhat surprisingly on a track that places great emphasis on power until performance, Ricciardo had the two McLaren drivers for close company, with Stoffel Vandoorne in seventh and Fernando Alonso eighth.

While Vandoorne was within 0.2s of Ricciardo – who has a 20-place grid penalty this weekend for changing power unit components – he was aided by McLaren focusing on slipstreaming plans during the session. Vandoorne helped Alonso with a tow in both Q1 and Q2 in Belgium, and Alonso will return the favor as this weekend it is the Spaniard who will start from the back of the grid due to a power unit change.

Esteban Ocon and Felipe Massa rounded out the top 10, while Massa's teammate Lance Stroll was five places further back after a spin at Ascari. The Williams rookie hit the inside curb on the entry to the high-speed chicane and slid sideways, coming to a halt facing the wrong way but being able to recover to the pits.

Soon after Stroll's spin, Carlos Sainz – 11th behind Massa – stopped at Turn 5 due to a mechanical issue, with teammate Daniil Kvyat then later told to return to the pits due to a problem, leaving Toro Rosso short on running for the afternoon.

Nico Hulkenberg was 12th fastest behind Sainz, but just before the Toro Rosso stopped on track the German was told to pit as Renault had concerns regarding the rear of the car that later turned out to be a hydraulic issue.

While Hulkenberg's problem took Renault a little while to diagnose, Kevin Magnussen suffered a failure that needed little investigation. The Haas driver was seen fighting with the rear of his car after running over the curb on the exit of the second Lesmo, suggesting a rear suspension issue. After Magnussen stopped at Ascari and the car was lifted to safety, television cameras showed a completely sheared right rear suspension arm had been the cause.