02/09/2005
NEWS STORY
Sauber drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve finished 13th and 15th respectively after today's first practice sessions for the Italian Grand Prix.
Jacques Villeneuve: "Today was not too bad. The hotter temperature helped the tyres to warm up faster which was good, and the balance was okay, but it's too early for me to draw too many conclusions about our performance so far."
Felipe Massa: "It was a good day, I think. We did some reasonable runs, including one long one in which we could see that our race pace is good. There was more grip than there was at the test last week, because of the higher temperature, so I was happier with the balance. Our main thing was to focus on race performance, which is the most important thing at Monza."
Wily Rampf (Technical Director): "We did all of our basic set-up work in the test here last week, so today was all about race preparation. We had to change the cooling configuration a little to cater for the warmer weather, but otherwise we achieved our programme and were able to assess both tyre options. Choosing the right one is not a completely clear decision, so we will be going through all the data carefully this afternoon."