Hamilton in the 'hot seat' as Magnussen crash blights latest Monza practice

Lewis Hamilton offered Mercedes a glimmer of hope for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix by finishing quickest at the end of Friday practice and a second session that was again disrupted by a red flag.

Hamilton edged McLaren's Lando Norris by just three-thousandths of a second around a revamped Monza following a flattening of its distinctive kerbs and resurfacing of the entire circuit, modifications made in a bid to modernise the veteran track.

As for Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who finished quickest at the end of first practice, his sole soft-tyre run was ruined by a mistake on entry to the Parabolica that left him 14th on the timesheet.

Following a heavy crash for Kimi Antonelli, and the repairs required during the interval between sessions, Mercedes' George Russell did not appear in FP2 until almost 22 minutes into the session.

The Briton had completed only six laps in his W15 when a crash involving Kevin Magnussen in his Haas brought out the red flags, losing the rear end on entry to the high-speed second Lesmo right-hander, resulting in him spinning through the gravel and hitting a barrier with the left-front.

A concern for both Mercedes drivers was the fact they both complained of a "hot seat", Hamilton doing so on two occasions in FP2 to add to his concerns from first practice.

Hamilton nudges ahead

It took just five minutes for Verstappen's leading time from first practice of 1:21.676s to be beaten, with Hamilton edging ahead by 0.035s, and on the medium compound tyres.

The conditions were different, however, compared to FP1, and arguably less representative of the conditions that can be expected for qualifying and during the race given the time of its running at 5 pm local.

With the scorching heat due to continue over the weekend, despite an air temperature of 34 degrees, consistent with FP1, the setting sun meant the track temperature had dropped by nine degrees for FP2.

Hamilton was also running with the new-spec floor on his car compared to using the old-spec in first practice as part of Mercedes' experimentation to understand its drop-off in performance in last weekend's Dutch Grand Prix.

Unsurprisingly, the mediums were the order of the day early in the session, with Hamilton's time soon surpassed, notably by Leclerc who posted a 1:21.119s to move to the top of the timesheet after 15 minutes.

Daniel Ricciardo was the anomaly in the early running as he used the softs to set a lap of 1:21.842s. The Australian, however, is not running the upgrade package on his RB this weekend that has been handed to team-mate Yuki Tsunoda due to the Japanese being ahead in the standings.

Once the comparable qualifying soft-tyre programmes started, Hamilton posted a 1:21.168s but the McLarens offered a glimpse of their pace as Oscar Piastri set a 1:20.858s - the first below 81 seconds this weekend - before being followed swiftly over the line by Norris who was quicker by seven-thousandths of a second.

Norris improved to 1:20.741s with his next hot lap but on his second run, Hamilton managed to collect a slight tow from Aston Martin's Lance Stroll that allowed him to beat Norris by just 0.003s, notably purpling the final sector, and a time that ultimately proved to be the quickest given the circumstances that followed.

Verstappen makes mistake

On his attempt to match the pacesetters, Verstappen suffered a snap of oversteer on entry to the Parabolica, resulting in a twitch of his Red Bull and him aborting his initial soft-tyre run.

Following Magnussen's crash soon after, and the resultant 12-minute delay, the run plans for the teams varied considerably, with nine of the drivers on softs and the other 10 on mediums as part of their race preparations.

Sergio Perez, whose RB20 required a gearbox change in between sessions that resulted in him missing the first 25 minutes, was one of those on softs, and although first on track one the action resumed, he finished almost a second down on Hamilton, and 15th overall, one place behind Verstappen.

Russell and Mercedes, meanwhile, opted for the mediums initially before a soft-tyre burst late on that propelled him up to sixth behind Hamilton, Norris, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, Piastri and Leclerc.

Haas' Nico Hulkenberg, Ricciardo and Aston Martin duo Fernando Alonso and Stroll completed the top 10.

On his full Friday debut, Williams' Franco Colapinto was 17th quickest, 1.046s down on Hamilton, and two-tenths adrift of team-mate Alex Albon.