The 13th round of the 2017 F1 season got underway in overcast conditions but the bulk of the rain stayed away as drivers began preparations for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix.
Haas F1 Team driver Romain Grosjean took advantage of the dry running, not knowing if FP2 would be run under the same conditions.
Grosjean clocked up a total of 22 laps, with his quick time being a 1:24.079 earned on his 12th lap. He was 16th overall.
Speeds increased in FP2, with the majority of the field bettering their FP1 marks as the air temperature was nearly five degrees warmer than FP1 with a track temperature that was 12 degrees higher.
Grosjean wrapped FP2 as the 16th-quickest driver once again with a time of 1:23.567, which was .512 of a second better than his best lap in FP1. His quick time came on the 11th of his 31 laps.
“I don't think we should read too much into lap times, to be fair,” the Frenchman said. “This morning was very, very tight, and it was again this afternoon. Half a second would put us to P7, or so. Competition-wise, I'm not too worried. There are a few things we want to do on the car. The long run felt OK. We'll try to make some magic tonight. I think, generally, it was a pretty good day.”
