First practice in Italy was relatively quiet. The Mercedes pair were comfortably fastest, with a full second over Ferrari who were next in line. The track was quite slippery and drivers were pushing to find the limits, and that only got worse as the expected rain came down with just 15 minutes of the session left to go.

In the afternoon, Bottas led the way from Hamilton – a switch from the morning session – but Ferrari had significantly closed the gap. All four cars were within half a second of each other. Both McLarens were also in the top ten, although Fernando Alonso did have momentary power loss that seemed to sort itself out.

Not so for Carlos Sainz, who endured a spin during FP1 and then an engine failure that halted his running in FP2. Kvyat was also told to stop towards the end of the session. Kevin Magnussen also stopped during FP2 with suspension trouble, picked up after running heavily over the kerbs around the tricky Monza track.

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