Monaco FP2: Hamilton and Mercedes flex their muscles

They may be reeling from the loss of Formula 1 legend Niki Lauda, but Mercedes are on a mission to win this one for their departed Chairman and it seems little will stop them.

Hamilton's best lap time of 1:11.118 came almost an hour into the 90-minute session after he and Bottas swapped places at the top of the timing screens, the Finn ended his afternoon eight-hundredths of a second shy of the #44 car.

Behind them, their rivals chased in vain but, as has become usual, to no avail. Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel was third, a distant seven tenths adrift of the prime time while his teammate Charles Leclerc struggled to find the sweet spot around his neighbourhood track. He was down in tenth, half a second down on his teammate's best.

Eight tenths adrift of the top time, in fourth, was Pierre Gasly in the Red Bull, while teammate Max Verstappen - who was second quickest in the morning session - ended sixth, the Dutchman hampered by a water leak, costing him at least 30 laps of track time during the period in which drivers were setting hot laps.

Best of the Rest was Alex Albon impressing with the sixth best time in the Toro Rosso, splitting the Blues on the timing screens, the rookie outshining his more experienced teammate Daniil Kvyat who was down in 14th.

After being black flagged in the morning session, Kevin Magnussen recovered in the afternoon to end seventh fastest ahead of the Alfa Romeo pair of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen, in eighth and ninth respectively.

While a full second separated Hamilton in first from Magnussen in seventh, the next ten cars were covered by seven-tenths of a second indicating a very tight battle in the midfield, while Mercedes look set for another dominant weekend and they have yet to roll out their big guns.