Hamilton: Mercedes closer to Ferrari than expected

Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes have found away to eat into Ferrari's straight-line advantage, hinting at a thrilling battle for supremacy in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix.

Ferrari had been largely expected to dominate at Monza, especially over one lap, and Charles Leclerc was quickest in both of Friday's practice sessions.

However, Hamilton was only 0.069secs adrift in FP2, aided by a tow from teammate Valtteri Bottas – tactics that are likely to be repeated in the pole-position shootout.

"There's not a massive amount different to how it was in the last race," Hamilton said, referencing Mercedes' strong race pace in Belgium a week ago, where Leclerc clung on to win from pole ahead of the championship leader.

"But actually perhaps [it is] a little bit closer on single-lap pace. It looks like we're going to have a fight.

"Definitely it is surprising. Honestly I didn't know what to expect this weekend.

"We expected them to be quick on the straight, which they are, but there's enough corners on which we're able to gain it back. They're not really that quick through the corners so it kind of balances it out.

"I still think it's going to be a really hard race, but we are on a similar level, which is really quite nice."

The rain that interrupted Friday practice is expected to stay away for qualifying, but then return for race day, however Hamilton says Mercedes will not make any compromises in their search for absolute speed.

"We don't really prepare for rain in the sense of getting the set-up for the rain. We're prepared to try and make the car as quick as we can do on a single lap and then deal with it once it does rain.

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