Statement from the Executive Committee of Volkswagen AG's Supervisory Board

In a meeting on Wednesday, September 23, the Executive Committee of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG discussed in detail the manipulation of emissions data of Volkswagen Group diesel engines and came to the following conclusions:

1. The Executive Committee takes this matter extremely seriously. The Executive Committee recognizes not only the economic damage caused, but also the loss of trust among many customers worldwide.
2. The Executive Committee agrees that these incidents need to be clarified with great conviction and that mistakes are corrected. At the same time, the Executive Committee is adamant that it will take the necessary decisive steps to ensure a credible new beginning.
3. The Executive Committee has great respect for Chairman Professor Dr. Winterkorn's offer to resign his position and to ask that his employment agreement be terminated. The Executive Committee notes that Professor Dr. Winterkorn had no knowledge of the manipulation of emissions data. The Executive Committee has tremendous respect for his willingness to nevertheless assume responsibility and, in so doing, to send a strong signal both internally and externally. Dr. Winterkorn has made invaluable contributions to Volkswagen. The company's rise to global company is inextricably linked to his name. The Executive Committee thanks Dr. Winterkorn for towering contributions in the past decades and for his willingness to take responsibility in this criticall phase for the company. This attitude is illustrious.
4. Recommendations for new personnel will be presented at the upcoming meeting of the Supervisory Board this Friday.
5. The Executive Committee is expecting further personnel consequences in the next days. The internal Group investigations are continuing at a high tempo. All participants in these proceedings that has resulted in unmeasurable harm for Volkswagen, will be subject to the full consequences.
6. The Executive Committee have decided that the company will voluntarily submit a complaint to the State Prosecutors' office in Brunswick. In the view of the Executive Committee criminal proceedings may be relevant due to the irregularities. The investigations of the State Prosecutor will be supported in all form from the side of Volkswagen.
7. The Executive Committee proposes that the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG create a special committee, under whose leadership further clarifying steps will follow, including the preparation of the necessary consequences. In this regard, the Special Committee would make use of external advice. Further details about this will be decided at the Supervisory Board meeting on Friday.
8. The Executive Committee is aware that coming to terms with the crisis of trust will be a long term task that requires a high degree of consistency and thoroughness.
9. The Executive Committee will work on these tasks together with the employees and the Management Board. Volkswagen is a magnificent company that depends on the efforts of hundreds of thousands of people. We consider it our task that this company regains the trust of our customers in every respect.

In a statement, Winterkorn said:

"I am shocked by the events of the past few days. Above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group.

As CEO I accept responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines and have therefore requested the Supervisory Board to agree on terminating my function as CEO of the Volkswagen Group. I am doing this in the interests of the company even though I am not aware of any wrongdoing on my part.

Volkswagen needs a fresh start - also in terms of personnel. I am clearing the way for this fresh start with my resignation.

I have always been driven by my desire to serve this company, especially our customers and employees. Volkswagen has been, is and will always be my life.

The process of clarification and transparency must continue. This is the only way to win back trust. I am convinced that the Volkswagen Group and its team will overcome this grave crisis."

Volkswagen's emissions deception brings more scrutiny to entire industry

NHTSA Chief Wonders If Other Automakers Employ Same Tricks - By - Pete Bigelow


Volkswagen's emissions deceptions have hurt the entire auto industry's credibility with federal regulators. Days after the world's largest automaker confessed to installing software that circumvents emissions standards on approximately a half-million diesel vehicles in the United States, a top federal safety official says the company's dishonesty will force government officials to view the entire auto industry with heightened skepticism.

"Your first question has to be, 'How extensive is it through the whole industry?' You don't know if it's a unique case or if other people are doing it," said Mark Rosekind, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "The unfortunate part is you're not going to worry about one person. It's extended to the entire industry. If they did it, someone else could do it."
"They tell you one thing, you question it." - Mark Rosekind
Rosekind's agency doesn't bear responsibility in investigating the emissions cheating. That falls to the Environmental Protection Agency, which served Volkswagen with a Notice of Violation on Friday that alleged the company's diesel vehicle equipped with 2.0-liter engines contained a defeat device that allowed the cars to detect when emissions testing was taking place. In normal driving situations, the cars spewed pollution at as much as 40 times allowable thresholds.

But because of the emissions cheating, NHTSA wonders if the German automaker has been cutting corners on safety standards or disingenuous on safety-related discussions. Speaking at an auto-industry event in Novi, MI, on Tuesday, Rosekind indicated no information can now be taken at face value. He used the phrase "Question assumptions" several times in discussing the case.



"Of course, question assumptions means, 'Is there some other safety element there that we're now going to have to investigate?" he said.

As it did in the General Motors ignition-switch probe, the Department of Justice has initiated an investigation of Volkswagen and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce announced it will hold hearings on the cheating. For NHTSA, criminal cases complicate matters. The agency core function is to regulate safety, not conduct criminal investigations. But in the early going, their investigators may be the first ones to spot wrongdoing.

Rosekind came to NHTSA after a five-year term as a board member at the National Transportation Safety Board, the independent federal agency charged with investigating transportation accidents. In that time, he said there was one investigation that involved a cover up.

"When you're on a safety investigation, it's a whole different look than a criminal one," he said. "So that's one of the problems here. Our folks found stuff, and it's not their job to look for criminal activity. That's one of the biggest lessons learned, to question assumptions. So to be clear: They tell you one thing, you question it."



He was not the only one dismayed about Volkswagen's conduct. In speaking about both the GM and Volkswagen criminal cases, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said Tuesday that he welcomed a criminal investigation into the German automaker's conduct. "Our auto-safety laws have been the province of industry lobbyists for far too long: We must rebalance the law by putting in place real and meaningful criminal and financial penalties," Blumenthal said, "a true deterrent against automakers concealing information that threatens human life."



Rosekind was making his first public appearance since the Justice Department announced it had reached a $900 million settlement with General Motors in its criminal probe of the company's conduct throughout the ignition-switch crisis, which claimed the lives of 124 motorists and injured hundreds more. Asked if he thought justice was served with the settlement, Rosekind paused, before replying, "I'm going to highlight the NHTSA part, which is that the DOJ validated everything that we found in the NHTSA investigation."

VERSTAPPEN: MY DAD WOULD KICK ME IN THE BALLS IF I LET SAINZ PAST

Teenage rookie Max Verstappen has admitted to thinking about his forceful father when Toro Rosso issued team orders during the Singapore Grand Prix.

Told to let his teammate Carlos Sainz past so that the Spaniard on fresher tyres could try to attack the car ahead, 17-year-old Verstappen instantly shouted back “No!”

“He was asked four times to let me go and didn’t,” Sainz told Spanish reporters afterwards. “That’s a little embarrassing. I felt that I could catch the Force India, but Max made his choice and it was to not listen.”

Dutchman Verstappen, however, defended his defiance on the basis that he had worked hard throughout the race for his position, fighting up from dead last.

“I didn’t see a reason to let him past,” he told De Telegraaf newspaper, “and if it was the other way around, he wouldn’t have let me past either.”

Sainz disputed that, insisting that while he and Verstappen get on well, they are “rivals” that do often need to think above the interests of the team.

Verstappen, however, admitted to knowing that if he had moved over for Sainz, he would have incurred the wrath of his feisty father and former F1 driver Jos.

“He told me that he would have kicked me in the balls if I had let him past,” retorted the teenager.

And ultimately, Verstappen’s defiance received the backing of his boss Franz Tost, “Max was right. If Carlos had been much faster, he would have got closer, but he always remained a few tenths behind. In the end it was therefore the right decision, and that’s what I told them.”

Tost said he is sure the disagreement will not lead to an escalation of hostilities between Sainz and Verstappen.

“I expect absolutely no dispute. Both are professional enough,” Verstappen confirmed. “I talked to Carlos and everything is fine. This will not have any major impact.”

AUDI HEADING TO FORMULA 1 WITH RED BULL

Audi’s Ingolstadt board has given the green light to enter Formula 1, the German publication Bild claimed in an exclusive report.

Actually, the latest rumours about the Volkswagen Group putting together a F1 foray for one of its brands was broken at the weekend by Eddie Jordan, the former F1 team owner who as British television pundit now regularly breaks major stories.

“Sometimes Eddie is wrong,” suggested Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, according to Auto Motor und Sport.

Horner had been asked about Jordan’s prediction because Red Bull is currently without an engine supplier for the future, having split behind the scenes with Renault.

Auto Bild claims that, minus “only a few signatures”, the Audi board has made the decision to enter F1 in 2018, collaborating with Red Bull as sponsor and pulling out of Le Mans and DTM.

“For me, nothing has changed,” Audi’s racing chief Dr Wolfgang Ullrich is quoted as saying.

The latest news follows hot on the heels of Red Bull’s renewed threat to quit F1, insisting that with Mercedes not willing and Ferrari not yet agreeing to supply an engine, it could be left without horse power.

Horner said: “The fact that we currently have only two strong engine manufacturers is unhealthy for formula one. With the V8s, we had three or four engines that were able to win.

“It is important for F1 that there are several competitive engine suppliers.”

PROST VS SENNA: A REAL INSIDER’S PERSPECTIVE

For many years the climax of the Formula 1 season has frequently had its fair share of drama. A blend of many of the fascinating strands that makes the sport so compelling, which even could be called a soap opera! The duel, with all its intrigue, of watching two team mates battling for the world championship.

It is said that one of the best ways to understand the future is to look back at history. Twenty five years ago, the 1989 World Championship had the lot – the season long feud between the top two drivers, heavy rain at the final race, with treacherous conditions bringing out the red flag not once but twice! Adelaide 1989, the season finale and my first Australian Grand Prix.

Whilst I had already worked in the marketing department at McLaren for four years, 1989 was the first year that I regularly attended all of the races – and what a year! The ingredients of the two best drivers in the world competing in the two best cars, had been simmering nicely the year before, with McLaren winning 15 out of 16 races, 15 out of 16 pole positions and leading 97% of all laps, with Ayrton Senna claiming the world championship for the first time with 8 race wins to 7 wins from his team mate, double World Champion Alain Prost.

If you think that double points at the final race in 2014 is a bizarre way to conclude the championship, 1988 in retrospect now seems equally strange! Only the best 11 results counted towards the championship. Alain Prost had scored 105 points during the year, but only 87 of those points were counted toward the championship.

Ayrton Senna meanwhile had scored 94 points, 90 points of which counted towards the championship by virtue of winning more races. Thus, Senna became the World Champion, even though he did not score the most points over the course of the year.

Therefore from a simmer, the following year was perfectly set to come to the boil!

My first race of the season was the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, the start of the races in Europe. My role was to look after the sponsors, plus I also carried the team media pass although all of the press releases were actually issued by Honda. I also had to liaise with the drivers on their promotional commitments with the sponsors and at the start of the race weekend I had to sit down with the drivers to brief them.

Both drivers had different styles. Alain would be relaxed and agree, provided that you continued to remind me. Ayrton was much more precise. You had to go through the details, what was required and most importantly for him, how long would it last, or rather, how little of his time would it take.

You had to be very correct with him and deliver on what you said, because once he accepted what he had to do then there was no room for deviation from the schedule.

It was fascinating to watch the transformation of his character as the weekend unfolded. On Thursday he was fairly open, but as the race weekend progressed that degree of openness progressively narrowed until it was almost closed when he was sitting in the car on the grid on Sunday, totally focused waiting for the lights to go out, with all that stored, built up energy and adrenaline ready to explode into the race.

On the track at Imola, with both drivers on the front row, the perceived logic was that it made no sense for them battle against each other at the start, so they agreed between them that whoever made the best start would be untroubled by the other and they wouldn’t race each other until after the first corner, Tosa. Ayrton made the better start and held a 2.7 second lead over Alain after three laps.

However Gerhard Berger had a spectacular accident at Tamburello where his Ferrari caught fire. Standing in the pit garage watching it live on the TV it looked horrendous and the race was stopped to rescue Gerhard, who fortunately escaped with minor burns and a broken rib.

Before the restart Ayrton and Alain again agreed to hold to the agreement. This time Alain made the better start and believing that he would not be challenged, held the racing line as they approached Tosa, only for Ayrton, who was slip-streaming behind, to pass him before the first corner to take the lead, which he would never relinquish. Alain was furious.

Although he finished second, he was so angry that he left the track and missed the post race press conference, which cost him a $5,000 fine.

The following week the team were testing at the Pembrey circuit in Wales and Ron Dennis summoned both drivers to attend to attempt to heal the rift. Eventually under enormous pressure and on the basis that it was for the good of the team, Ayrton made a formal statement of apology, although he was not happy about doing this.

When Ron returned to Woking by helicopter he believed all was well. However a few days later Alain did an interview in the French press where he called Ayrton a dishonest man who couldn’t keep his word. Ayrton was so furious and regretted even more making his reluctant apology and decided not to speak to Alain again. From Monaco they hardly spoke to each other, which didn’t make life easy within the team!

However, having said that, I do recall occasions when they did attend functions together and did have to communicate, albeit awkwardly. In Mexico at a Marlboro press conference, there was the unique opportunity to observe the two world champions share the podium with five times world champion Juan Manual Fangio, who didn’t speak English, so his words were translated by a young interpreter.

What made it fascinating was that if you closed your eyes and listened, not just to the voices, but also to the opinions and the way they were expressed, you would have thought that Fangio was the youngest!

I also remember that weekend going to a dinner with both drivers and the team management where Alain bet Ron Dennis $1,000 to eat a whole bowl of hot chillies. Never one to turn down a bet, RD duly accepted. Whilst he went a colour similar to the Marlboro red, drank numerous pints of water and went very quiet for a quite a long time, he duly demolished the whole bowl! I, having always liked hot food, would have duly done the bet for half the money!

I seem to recall Ayrton’s words about it not being a good idea to bet against Ron. No doubt mindful of the occasion when on their original contract negotiation when they reached a stalemate, Ron proposed that they toss a coin to decide the difference. Once explained Ayrton agreed, Ron tossed the coin and won.

It was only afterwards that Ayrton realised that the difference was not one year at $500,000, but three years at $500,000 per year. He never made that mistake again and this information was duly computed to be used as added ammunition when they next came to negotiate!

The following weekend was the USA Grand Prix in Phoenix, which in June was approaching the hottest part of the year. From the large crowd in Mexico, the street circuit in Phoenix was quite a contrast and it was rumoured that a local ostrich race attracted a larger crowd than for the Grand Prix! We were fortunate to stay at the Phoenician Resort, a spectacular hotel on 152 acres in Scottsdale.

Another of my other duties was settling the hotel bills for the team management and drivers, and I can clearly remember the cold sweat as the clock ticked by with the flight departure time getting ever closer whilst still sorting out the endless bills, which I seem to remember giving a hammering to my company American Express card to the tune of $25,000!

That weekend was Ron Dennis’ birthday and a party was held at yet another Mexican restaurant, complete with the band members of ZZ Top amongst other American celebrities.

That weekend also showed me a demonstration of the more gentler side of Ayrton Senna. As it was the American Grand Prix, present were a number of senior executives and guests of Philip Morris and we had a number of Marlboro promotional activities for the drivers to do.

Whilst Ayrton was never a great fan of going to these functions, once there he always performed well, albeit with one eye on the clock ready to make an early exit. At that time there was an ongoing debate as to how long a driver should appear at a function. Marlboro were of the old school of keeping the driver as long as possible, however the McLaren view championed by Ron, under pressure from the drivers, principally Ayrton, was to keep the time to a minimum.

Actually as we subsequently proved you can achieve more with a driver with a short punchy appearance than with something long and drawn out – leave the crowd wanting more as they say. However this was in the early days of the debate and being the US there was lots of demands on the drivers time.

On this particular occasion we had two Marlboro functions back to back, but held on opposite ends of the hotel. My job was to make sure that Ayrton went to both. After the first function we walked the vast empty corridors of this huge hotel, just the two of us. Suddenly we became aware of a young girl coming towards us.

Now the awareness and interest in F1 in Phoenix was not great, but this lady was a fan and more particularly a fan of Ayrton and to come face to face with him in a hotel corridor left her speechless. Much as she wanted to converse with her hero, she was frozen to the spot, with tears welling up in her eyes.

This is when you saw the very gentle and humble side of Ayrton. Seeing the state she was in, he put his arms around her, calmed her down and gave her his autograph. As we walked away onto the function, she still remained frozen to the spot, but with a great big smile on her face!

On the track the tension between the best two drivers in the world was intensifying. Alain was becoming increasingly convinced that Ayrton was receiving better engines from Honda, claiming that he had more speed on the straight.

McLaren took this very seriously. Whilst the collection of car data through the telemetry was in its early stages, especially when compared to today, I do remember having the data explained to me that the reason Ayrton was quicker on the straight was that he was quicker coming out of the corners!

The battle increasingly intensified throughout the season and then we came to the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, the penultimate round of the World Championship with Alain leading the championship by 18 points. By now it had been announced that Alain was going to leave McLaren to join Ferrari and the atmosphere in the team was tense to say the least!

From pole position Alain made the better start and started to pull away, however after the pit stop for new tyres Ayrton found more speed and progressively closed the gap. Somehow you knew that this would not end well! As they approached the chicane on lap 47 Ayrton saw an opportunity and determinedly went for the gap.

However Alain wasn’t prepared to give way and shut the door. Inevitably they touched and both cars came to a stop in the middle of the chicane. If both drivers were out Alain was World Champion. Thinking it was all over Alain undid his belts and got out of the car. However Ayrton, ever determined as always, got the marshals to push start him and got back on the circuit.

We watched this unfold on the big screen in the pit lane. Ayrton headed for the pits to replace the broken nose. It was like watching a film in slow motion as the Japanese marshals under orders tried to prevent the mechanics from changing the nose, but were ceremonially disposed of.

Once unleashed, Ayrton accelerated hard down the pit lane, as there was no pit lane speed limit then, in pursuit of race leader Alessandro Nannini in the Benetton who he duly caught and overtook to take the chequered flag. However Ayrton was not credited with the race win as he was disqualified on the grounds that he had cut the chicane and didn’t rejoin the track at the point at which he had left it!

There then followed weeks of drama which F1 has become known for. Alain was the new World Champion to take the coveted Number One to Ferrari, Ayrton was excluded, which was appealed and then upheld with the added bonus, to the FIA, of a $100,000 fine, and he received a six months suspended ban. And then there were the press conferences and media briefings.

The week following the appeal we did two press conferences to explain the McLaren position. The first at the Penta Hotel at London’s Heathrow airport and the second in Adelaide at the Hilton Hotel. Ron made it very clear to the assembled media that he thought that the exclusion was unjust, based on Ayrton’s manner of rejoining the track.

This was supported by a series of video clips, which featured some historic footage of driving through chicanes unpenalised, which humorously demonstrated just how farcical the ruling was. In Adelaide, as the marketing person, I was volunteered to be operator of the video machine and press the buttons when required.

Ron had arrived in Australia earlier on the Thursday morning and I went to his room to show him the video tape which had been prepared for Adelaide. After looking briefly at it on the video player in his room, he then went to get changed.

“Shouldn’t we rewind the tape for the conference?” I enquired. “No it will be alright” he replied. When it came to the conference it wasn’t and guess who publicly got the blame? However to be fair, Ron did apologise later saying that he blamed the technical operator to hide his embarrassment.

As the holder of the McLaren media pass, I was the one who usually escorted Ayrton to the press conferences. He clearly was very upset, but focused and I can clearly remember his delivery when talking to the assemble media with watery eyes:

“They are treating me like a criminal … I never caused the incident. I am aggressive, I am determined and dedicated to my profession .. but the version given to you about the Suzuka incidents … presented me as a lunatic who was breaking the rules”.

In Adelaide he was determined to emphasis his point. Australia is famous for being known as the land of sunshine, which it normally is, with the possible exception of Grand Prix race days. In fact I became known at the Shell Hospitality suite as the man who said that “it always was rains in Australia”, which was often my opening line when giving race day briefings to the guests.

In fact in later years, at the 1992 Grand Prix I can remember the race being red flagged because of the wet conditions, followed by the race restart being repeatedly delayed until the race was finally abandoned.

Gerhard Berger, who was by then driving for McLaren had even changed into his normal clothes and was sitting in the hospitality area, when his engineer Steve Hallam in a panic came telling Gerhard to put on his overalls and get up to the podium.

If you look closely at any of the podium pictures of Adelaide in 1992 you might have thought that Gerhard had put on a few kilos. In fact his more Michelin man appearance was due to the fact that his overalls were squeezed over his normal clothes!

Coming back to race day in 1989 there was torrential rain which never looked like easing. This caused the race start to be delayed by 30 minutes, during which time debate raged, with Alain at the forefront, as to whether the race should indeed be held, with some of the drivers believing that the conditions were bordering on the suicidal.

As all this drama was going on, Ayrton remained resolutely sat in his car on the grid in the pole position slot, demonstrating that he was prepared to race, come what may. Trying to get the drivers to all agree not to race was akin to trying to herd cats and eventually all 26 drivers went to the grid.

The race started under heavy rain, with sections of the track covered by water. On the second lap an incident blocked the track causing the race to be red flagged, but not before Alain came in on the first lap to withdraw in protest, taking off his helmet and slamming it down onto the work counter in the pit garage.

At the restart Ayrton again stormed into the lead, pushing as hard as he could in the conditions, which was significantly quicker than anyone else could. Even with a huge lead, he pushed hard to extend it even further, despite spinning more than once. Eventually even his luck ran out as he came across the added challenge of overtaking back makers.

As he went to pass a Lotus he ran straight into the back of Martin Brundle’s Brabham which was totally obscured by the spray. As we watched on TV the replay of the onboard rearward footage from Martin’s car, it was like a scene from the movie Jaws as the nose of the McLaren suddenly appeared out of nowhere to attack.

This caused Ayrton to spin three times, before he managed to limp back to the pits where the mechanics automatically sprang into action to change wheels. That is all except those on the front left hand corner, which had been ripped off in the accident.

You could almost imagine Ayrton sitting in the car with a broad smile on his face, watching the mechanics make the change and then seeing them realise what had happened. Ayrton’s race was definitely over!

We flew back from Adelaide to London on the Monday afternoon on a full flight packed with F1 people, which included Ayrton up the front. The British Airways flight via Singapore arrived in London early on an autumnal morning and whilst we sleepily assembled to collect our bags, we were entertained by Ayrton demonstrating his Adelaide spin with a luggage trolley.

True to realism, he got the trolley to spin a whole three times in front of the amused F1 crowd of onlookers who enthusiastically counted the number of spins.

Because my car was at the airport, having only left for Adelaide on the previous Tuesday night after the London press conference, somehow I ended up giving Ayrton a lift back to the factory in Woking.

It was always a daunting task driving with a racing driver as a passenger, especially when it is a World Champion. In my first year in the job I was tasked to collect Alain from London’s Heathrow airport just after he had won the 1985 World Championship, in one of the early edition Range Rovers, which had the tendency to roll around corners like a yacht in full sail!

Driving back to Woking with Ayrton I can clearly remember the words coming from the back seat in the distinctive voice: “Peter, I can’t believe that you, as a member of the Honda Marlboro McLaren team are driving a Renault!”

I know that I have focused more on Ayrton than Alain. This was very much because I had much more to do with Ayrton. Alain was the old boy of the team and from a marketing point of view knew what he had to do, albeit it with a bit of prompting, plus he knew the sponsors much better than I did. Ayrton and I were still in many ways the new boys, so both learning as we went along.

Although I do remember those chilling words: “I know that I am obligated to do it, but I am not going to!” which sent shivers of terror down my spine when thinking of how on earth I was going to explain that to the sponsor!

To me Alain Prost was always a gentlemen, very good natured and friendly, who in typical polite French fashion, would, and still does, always shake your hand.

I feel tremendously privileged to have known and worked with two of the very best ever drivers in the world, in what was at the time, the very best team.

Inside Line by Peter Burns (above) who spent 17 years in Formula One with McLaren between 1985 to 2002 as Senior Marketing Manager and has over 30 years experience in the global motorsport industry.

MONZA FP2: HAMILTON FASTEST AS ROSBERG REDUCES GAP

Lewis Hamilton continued to set the pace for Mercedes at Monza but whereas the championship leader eclipsed team-mate Nico Rosberg by just shy of half a second in the morning session, in the afternoon Rosberg closed the gap to just two hundredths of a second.

Sebastian Vettel was third and after being over 1.5 seconds off the pace in the morning he too closed the gap to Hamilton in the afternoon, ending the session seven tenths adrift of the Briton after the teams’ runs on the option soft tyre.

The session began with Ferrari’s pleasing the partisan local crowd by settling into an early one-two, with Kimi Räikkönen first topping the times with a lap of 1:26.684 before he was eclipsed by Vettel on 1:26.548.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg then went quickest before Vettel reclaimed top spot with a lap of 1:26.252.

Those laps were set before either Mercedes driver had taken to the track but once they did the duo quickly rose to the top with Hamilton first to P1 with a time of 1:25.683 before Rosberg took over with a lap of 1:25.617. Hamilton then improved to 1:25.133s to leave his team-mate three tenths of a second adrift.

Hulkenberg was the first to make the move to the soft tyre, setting a time of 1:25.720. He was followed by Vettel who split the Mercedes duo with his opening soft-tyre lap of 1:25.136. The Ferrari driver then went fastest with a second flying lap on the softs, setting a time of 1m25.038.

However, the soft tyre phase mirrored the opening part of the session with the Mercedes drivers powering ahead when they too bolted on the soft tyres.

Hamilton logged a time of 1:24.279 on his opening lap and then failed to improve on his second tour but after his first lap left him two hundredths of a second in arrears he seemed set to take top spot with two quick opening sectors on his second lap. However, he lost time through Parabolica and had to settle for P2.

Vettel repeated his third place of the morning but this time he closed to 0.759 of a second behind Hamilton. The German finished 1400ths of a second ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez, who was four hundredths of a second ahead of team-mate Hulkenberg.

Ferrari were the only non-Mercedes-powered team in the top with Räikkönen taking sixth place ahead of the Lotus cars of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado, who were backed up by the Williams duo of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

It was a difficult afternoon for Red Bull Racing, however. Daniil Kvyat spent part of the session on the garage aas the team rectified a gearbox issue from the morning and afterwards spent most of his session on medium tyres and was slowest as the team, which is set to take engine-related grid penalties this weekend chose to focus on race preparation.

Team-mate Daniel Riccairdo hit trouble too, wioth the Australian forced back to the pits with a hydraulic problems caused by his DRS.

Italian Grand Prix, Free Practice 2 – Friday, 4 September 2015

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:24.279		27
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:24.300	+0.021s	35
3	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:25.038	+0.759s	36
4	11	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:25.278	+0.999s	34
5	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:25.325	+1.046s	43
6	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:25.380	+1.101s	39
7	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:25.497	+1.218s	41
8	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:25.513	+1.234s	41
9	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:25.647	+1.368s	34
10	19	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:25.891	+1.612s	31
11	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:26.114	+1.835s	30
12	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:26.133	+1.854s	32
13	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:26.222	+1.943s	27
14	33	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:26.454	+2.175s	38
15	55	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:26.641	+2.362s	50
16	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:26.966	+2.687s	31
17	28	Will Stevens	Marussia	1:28.201	+3.922s	29
18	98	Roberto Merhi	Marussia	1:28.439	+4.160s	27
19	22	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:28.471	+4.192s	3
20	26	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	1:28.723	+4.444s	28