11/09/2009
NEWS STORY
Bridgestone's soft tyre proved to be the fastest rubber at the high speed and historic motor sports destination of Monza for the first day of the Italian Grand Prix. Under glorious blue skies Force India driver Adrian Sutil set a 1min 23.924secs time in the afternoon practice session.
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was the fastest in the morning session, using the medium compound to set a time of 1min 23.936secs. In this session only Giancarlo Fisichella in his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro debut made use of the soft compound tyre, with all other competitors only using the medium compound.
What was significant about today's running?
Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development: "Today was interesting as this was the first time that we have run in Monza this season. Historically, there would be a test here before the race weekend, so today was the first time that the teams have used their special low drag and lower downforce Monza configurations. Additionally, the revised kerbs have changed the nature of the lap, so this was another factor to consider today. Despite this, lap times were once more very close, with the top twelve cars this afternoon separated by a second."
How do you expect this allocation to work over the weekend?
HH: "It is still too early for us to make strong predictions. The track is still improving and there were many different chassis set-ups and aerodynamic configurations used today which makes tyre comparison difficult. What we can say is that both compounds have worked well today. We haven't seen any graining and there were no other particular tyre issues. As the times are so close the smallest mistake by a driver or in car set-up will make a big difference in qualifying tomorrow.