Leclerc quickest, Hamilton close in Italian GP FP2

Charles Leclerc set the pace for Ferrari through second practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, edging out Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton by just six-hundredths of a second on Friday afternoon.

After leading the way through changeable conditions in FP1 earlier in the day, Leclerc continued to head the field for Ferrari as teams completed a large amount of dry running through the afternoon session.

Leclerc turned in a fastest lap time of 1m20.978s to finish P1 by just 0.068s from Hamilton, with the Mercedes driver getting some quick laps in among sporadic light rain showers through the second half of the session.

Sebastian Vettel was a step behind Leclerc in the second Ferrari, finishing third, two-tenths of a second back, while Valtteri Bottas was a further one-tenth of a second behind in fourth for Mercedes.

While Ferrari led the way over a single lap, Mercedes appeared to have the edge through the long-runs on Friday afternoon at Monza, giving the German team a boost heading into the rest of the weekend. Leclerc even questioned whether his Ferrari car had any issues on the straights, but was reassured by his Ferrari team that everything was working normally.

Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon finished fifth and sixth respectively for Red Bull, while Pierre Gasly led the midfield teams in seventh for Toro Rosso.

Romain Grosjean took eighth place for Haas ahead of Renault's Daniel Ricciardo, with Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat completing the top 10.

The session was interrupted by just one red flag midway through the session, called for track cleaning after gravel was dragged onto the circuit at the exit of the second chicane.

Lando Norris was the only driver to hit trouble through FP2, suffering a small oil leak that kept him in the garage for the first half of the session. Norris was warned for exceeding track limits at the exit of Parabolica later in the session.

Free Practice 3 begins at 12pm local time in Monza on Saturday (11am BST).