Nico Rosberg, who trails the Brit by nine points in the drivers’ championship standings, was 0.393secs slower than his team-mate.
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Belgian GP victor Rosberg said: “The auto felt pretty good during P1 but we need to work on the balance of the vehicle overnight as the one lap pace didn’t feel 100 per cent during P2”.
“We’re just not quick enough, there is no point making it super-complicated”.
It would take someone far more au fait with this part of the urban dictionary to know what this makes Hamilton, arguably the greatest driver of this generation, like Fangio and Senna were of theirs, but it can be confidently said that the omens are mightily good for the 31-year-old tomorrow.
When the action resumed, Hamilton and Rosberg set the pace with 1m 22.856s and 1m 23.333s respectively on softs until Vettel split them with 1m 23.312s – but the German was on supersofts.
“Very happy today. I feel proud and honoured to be amongst Senna and Fangio [as five-time Monza polesitters]”.
“They are such incredible drivers and I never thought in a million years that my name would be mentioned in the same breath as them”. Here, the gap was bigger. “The guys ahead of us are in a world of their own”.
Meanwhile, Hamilton played down the lock-up in Q2, set on his best lap, and therefore on the tyres he will have to start the race on.
Ricciardo said: “Position-wise, we are more or less where we expected”.
Of the rest, Esteban Ocon was 18th – causing a short Virtual Safety Car period when he stopped out on track in FP2 – ahead of Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat, Felipe Nasr and Jolyon Palmer in positions 19 through to 22.
“It is pretty frickin’ insane when you mention Fangio”, he said last night ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.
Rosberg, who once led this championship by 43 points, attempted to put a fearless face on the deficit of his margin to Hamilton.
Former Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso was seventh for McLaren ahead of Valtteri Bottas of Williams with Romain Grosjean of Haas and Jenson Button, in the second McLaren, completing the top ten.
The championship leader also asked the F1 contingent to go easy at the youngster urging the critics to give him a break.
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The Finn has achieved just seven podium finishes in 51 Grands Prix since re-joining, while Vettel – without a win in 2016 having won three previous year – had achieved double the amount of victories by this stage in his Red Bull career and was well on the way to a first drivers’ crown.
