06/09/2013
NEWS STORY
Lewis and Nico finished the second practice session for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix in sixth and seventh positions respectively after a productive day in hot, sunny conditions.
The drivers completed a total of 130 laps during today's three hours of practice running. The technical focus was on aerodynamic evaluations and tyre comparison runs ahead of Sunday's race. Overall, the team enjoyed a productive and trouble-free technical programme, a good starting point for the weekend.
Lewis Hamilton: The car feels pretty good here today at Monza. The balance is reasonable and we've had a pretty smooth day, better than our recent Fridays in fact. Although we're quite competitive, we're not quick enough yet and will have to work hard tonight to see where we can make some improvements. Of course we don't know what fuel loads other teams are on so we'll have to wait and see but there is a bit of work for us to do if we want to compete right at the front tomorrow.
Nico Rosberg: As usual on Fridays, we are a bit away from the quickest times, however we learned a lot today. Almost every single lap brings important information and I think our car is good again. We need to work hard this evening to improve further though as the Red Bulls are very quick again. Generally it's a great atmosphere here at Monza; the track is absolutely fantastic and the fans are very enthusiastic. There's always a great welcome for us here.
Ross Brawn: We enjoyed a trouble-free day with no major issues but it's hard to judge exactly where we are because of differing fuel loads. We collected good information about the two tyre compounds with our long runs and the balance of the cars seemed reasonable. We will work this evening to see exactly how competitive we think we are but I think that we are in the mix, although perhaps not right at the front.
Toto Wolff: Both drivers completed a lot of laps today and gathered valuable data for the engineers to work through tonight. Now we need to analyse what we were lacking in terms of performance on both a single lap and the long runs, so that we can hopefully make a step forward tomorrow.
Check out our Friday gallery, here.